White Ink
by AcausalTrilby
Summary: [Completed] Things go a little differently in the Fuyuki fire and Shirou finds himself with no memories of his old family but with an amazing new power to help him survive in a dangerous world.
1. The root of the problem

**Shirou**

It was a cool crisp night in the city of Fuyuki. The stars shone down illuminating a moonless sky. It was a night in which all little dead apostles stayed in bed dreaming of human ruination and feasts of blood. It was truly a shame that the mood was ruined by a cursed fire rampaging throughout the city.

All of mankind's sins rushed through the streets toppling buildings and burning humans alive. The cries of the dead and dying echoed through the empty as people were crushed under rubble and charred by an eldritch force that well and truly hated them.

"Fuck," thought Shirou Aozaki. It had not been a good night for him. "This has been a terrible evening," he elaborated unknowingly supporting the observation of the narrator.

The acrid taste of the smoke had begun to infiltrate his lungs making it nearly impossible to breathe. His legs ached with a dull throbbing that indicated that his muscles would grudgingly allow this to continue but he better be prepared to pay the price tomorrow. All around him lay the dead and dying. Hands stretched out as if to beg for his help eyes staring accusingly as he trudged on past them not looking at them. Under normal circumstances he would have gone to help them or at least called a responsible adult however at present he found himself immensely preoccupied upon saving his own life.

Shirou scooted around the next batch of horribly maimed and burnt cadavers and swore as he stepped upon an area that had been in contact with the cursed flames not too long ago. He clutched his painfully burnt foot and was reminded of the many times he burnt himself on the oven at his house. His parent had absolutely forbidden him from the kitchen until he was older but the attraction of that shiny magical place from which amazing foods appeared was too much to bear. His mother had promised to teach him the secret Aozaki cooking magecraft when he got older. Now she never would. She was crushed pushing him to safety as their hotel collapsed. He let out a short humourless laugh. His father had died just a few days ago as their old hotel collapsed in some form of gas explosion. "Fucking hotels," he thought to himself resolving to avoid them in the future, if there was a future for him.

Normally he would feel some sort of pleasure in being able to swear without any of his parents reprimanding him but in this case he just felt empty. His capacity to care about anything was long surpassed by the event of the prior few days. The numbness continued flowing up his body and his legs finally gave way leaving him face flat with a mouth full of ashes. He vaguely recognized the heat of the ground but his energy supplies had finally bottomed out and he was utterly unable to move. He closed his eyes lying amongst ash and lost the battle against unconsciousness his last image being of shoes moving swiftly towards him.

 **Kiritsugu**

Kiritsugu frantically ran through the burning streets as if the hounds of hell were chasing him. Dimly a thought repeated in his head like a merciless jackhammer. "This is my fault."

Upon being confronted by that… thing that had come out of the grail he had immediately commanded Saber to destroy the grail. He grimaced as he reflected on how that went down. Excalibur unfortunately was the proverbial water being thrown on the oil that was the holy grail. Upon the light of Excalibur touching the cursed grail, mud had exploded out immediately swallowing his servant. He had barely survived by utilizing his magic circuits to the fullest extent and accelerating his personal time further than he had ever done before. He could still feel the dull ache that symbolized something broken. Even so the mud had nearly reached him, he could remember the prana so laden with curses even a servant would not have stood a snowballs chance in hell against that onslaught.

Unfortunately he possessed no magecraft that could stop the flames, and thus he avoided the sludge and hurried down the mountain determined to save all the people he came across. However every scene he arrived at the only thing he saw was dust and death.

His heart pounded as he pushed himself trying to save just one person. He tried to mitigate this tragedy in just one small way. To try in a small way to atone for what he had done. If he could save just one person that could keep him going prevent him from losing hope. He prayed to the root, he cursed the root. He prayed to god, he cursed god. He stumbled over the cursed ground when he saw it.

A flash of red, a body lying on the mostly untouched by the flames, it was a young boy. Despair gave way to hope as he ran towards the child lying face down in the dirt. He gently flipped him around and laid a hand on his chest feeling for a pulse.

He felt nothing

 **Shirou**

He drifted barely aware of anything. All the pains that he was feeling as he waded through the flames were gone. He couldn't hear, couldn't feel and couldn't see. Even the beating of his heart was silent. He tried to open his eyes but he failed. He tried to lift his hands but he failed.

He tried to panic but his head felt empty. He just existed drifting through the empty spaces. The silence was oppressive but as he listened he started to hear a faint hum.

The hum grew louder and as he focused he began to distinguish a point of light, then another and then another.

The points of light multiplied until there were 27 glowing points of light that were spinning in the air. With a jolt he realized what they were, he would never forget that number 27 or 3x3x3. The number of magic circuits that he possessed greater than any of his families, his parents were so happy to see that and they hoped that when he grew older they would match… someone. He realized with a jolt that he could no longer remember the names of any of his family.

He thought trying to dredge up the names of his parents, his siblings; anybody and he came up short. Memories of his past life were missing as if they were deleted or removed. But that was impossible, the only way it could have happened was if…

"Oh so you've finally become cognizant of yourself," a voice rang out through the darkness. The voice was toneless and seemed to mock the concept of accents and languages. It felt cold and deliberate as if the words were just parcelled intent being beamed to him. Worse he knew his ears were still not working and that meant…

"Yes I am speaking within your head how nice of you to notice," again the voice sounded out cutting off his internal monologue. He attempted to speak but he had no tongue, no lips. Again that odd feeling of panic not panic settled in. He felt his magic circuits spin faster than ever as if trying to ward off the intruder.

"Relax," the voice sounded again. "There is a very good reason why you can't see. To be more specific, there is a very good reason why I blinded you." The voice said again unveiling the horrible truth in its voice of intent over words.

"Have you ever heard the story of Orpheus, no I don't suppose you would have." The voice stated and Shirou got the feeling the voice was laughing at him. "A man rescues his lover and is told he can leave the underworld on the condition that he doesn't look back. Man looks back and his wife is carried back to the underworld." The humour in the voice stops.

"If you were to see [this place] your human mind would be ripped to shreds at the influx of information, the remaining memories in your soul would be obliterated and you would head immediately to your next life. Understand?"

Shirou envisioned nodding back and forth as fast as he could. The threatening tone in his voice bypassed the numbness that he was feeling and allowing panic to enter his veins.

Wait his veins he could sort of feel them again. They started to tingle and he could sort of feel the blood flow.

"You are starting to live again," the voice said. "To be more specific you are being forced to live again. If you want I can stop that," the voice said offhandedly. "That little artefact is pretty nifty but I can bypass it if you desire to remain here."

Shirou immediately envisioned shaking his head.

"Well don't think about it too long," the voice said amusement filling its voice. "It's not as if I will get offended that you find my company so dull." The voice paused.

"That artefact doesn't have enough juice to get you all the way. If you were sent back you would die again after all the prana gets used up." Shirou suddenly got the impression that the voice was smirking.

"However there is normally a sort of reward for reaching [this place]. With my amazing powers I can somewhat influence the selection." The voice turned contemplative. "Let's see two and five are already taken. One is too complex to use immediately. While three might help you stay alive in some form you don't have the experience to use it to recreate your body. That leaves option number four."

"Right," the voice said and Shirou felt as if he was being gripped, "when you wake up you must immediately claim the artefact," the voice said seriously. "It may put up some resistance but with this power you now have you can bypass it." The intent came thick and fast as Shirou's veins began to tingle more fiercely.

"It was nice talking to you. If you ever find yourself attaining a great enough comprehension of the universe or achieve a higher state so that you may survive here it would be nice to meet you again. Unfortunately I'm not exactly allowed to go where you're going back to. I could bypass the rules but then," the voice seemed to shrug it shoulders, "bad stuff may happen."

Shirou's blood was flowing thickly now and he was starting to feel again. Light flickered across his vision and he could feel both his eyes and ears start to exist.

"By the way if you ever need a name for me when you lie awake in bed imagining my magnificence call me Inke. Or I suppose in your language it would be Inke-Sama. I never really had to deal with honorifics." The voice chuckled. "Goodbye, use that power well, claim the artefact, and be careful of women. They'll ruin you."

Shirou turned back at that last comment and froze. His eyes were barely working but he still caught a glimpse of the owner of the voice.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

His brain blanked out knowledge was flowing into his brain but he was utterly unable to understand it. He could see the voice and grasp the voice but he was unable to comprhend it. He had a feeling if his body wasn't disconnected from his soul his brain would have destroyed itself by now. A myriad of error messages blared to a barely functional brain and he woke up.

 **Kiritsugu**

Avalon was inside the kid but the healing had grown wealer. Kiritsugu rocked on the balls of his feet. He should have kept looking. Even the mythical scabbard of King Arthur should not be able to bring the dead back to life. But something had told him to transfer the scabbard. To try to save the kid. He spent 5 minutes waiting hoping against hope until the boy took his first miraculous yet halting breaths. Those were the longest five minutes of his life. Now the boy lay in a hospital bed barely alive. He was going to adopt the kid, he thought. He's going to make it up for screwing up his life so badly. He was going to adopt the kid and then he's going to rescue Illya and then he will raise them to be brother and sister. But how is he going to get her back from the Eizberns. They surely wouldn't let him take her without a fight. His circuits were damaged from overuse and it would take a while for them to recover. In fact it would be unlikely that he would ever achieve over eighty percent of his prior functionality. First he needs a safe house then a plan. The magus killer stood drawing and discarding plans until he was disrupted by a beeping noise from the monitor that monitored the red-headed child. The nurse rushed out of the room obviously to get the doctor.

Kiritsugu was about to follow the nurse to see the doctor when he suddenly noticed a glow out of the corner of his eye and felt a surge of prana. The glow was faint but it briefly intensified and then died down. And the child opened his eyes.

 **Shirou**

Shirou snapped back to awareness with the sensation of pain that floored him and threatened to send him back to unconsciousness. As waves of pain wracked his body he dimly remembered the instructions that he was given to reclaim the artefact. He tried to open his eyes to look for the artefact but they wouldn't respond he tried to use his hands to grasp for the artefact but they wouldn't respond. He felt despair, he could feel his life slip away and he couldn't find the artefact that could save his life.

But one sense didn't fail him. He could feel an object radiating minute amounts of prana in his chest. He focused on it trying to ignore the pounding in his head and the pain that flowed through all his muscles. As he focused on it something happened like a seventh sense he never knew about he became aware of the object. Vast streams of knowledge flowed into his head, no the knowledge was already in his head and seeing the object just helped him remember it.

The stream of knowledge was heavy but to thing stood out of it.

[Avalon The Ever Distant Utopia] and [Belongs To King Arthur].

He suddenly knew what he had to do he focused on the second part of the object willing it to change. He needed it to change. Not one unit of prana flowed from him, but slowly ever so slowly as if pushing against a mountain the information changed.

[Belongs To Shirou].

He contemplated briefly putting down the name Shirou Aozaki but his parents were dead he didn't even know if his siblings still existed or loved him or anything.

Immediately he felt prana from his circuits flow into the object, Avalon, and his wounds almost instantly disappeared.

Feeling his injuries healed he opened his eyes and realised he was in a hospital room. The hospital room was empty of people except for one. A man with black hair and a serious look upon his face looked at him with sharp eyes.

Shirou just matched his gaze wearily. With all he had been through he was exhausted. Despite being healed his energy was at basically zero.

After a short period of time the man relaxed and walked up to Shirou.

"I see." He said. "You're a magus. Do you have a family to go to?"

Shirou contemplated this for a while. His parents were dead. He was vaguely aware that he might have siblings but he didn't get the feeling of any closeness. He shook his head.

The man looked Shirou up and down before he said bluntly. "My name is Kiritsugu, I'm also a magus would you like me to adopt you."

Shirou looked at the man and focused on him. Instantly he was overcome by a wealth of knowledge. Kiritsugu Emiya. Grew up on an island. Killed his father. Hunted down apostles and rogue magi. Killed his adopted mother. Killed, killed, killed. The magus killer. Caused the destruction of the hotel, caused the fire. Shirou's eyes narrowed. This was the man who brought so much sorrow to the whole world and to him. In that moment for a brief second he truly hated Kiritsugu Emiya.

That moment passed however, he no longer remembered much about his family and so he found it impossible to get upset about them. Moreover he could see the reason behind each of his crimes. He could see his new resolve to atone for his deeds. Beyond that he could see the remorse. He could see the pain that he was in hidden behind the man's stoic exterior. He felt if he rejected the man right now then something awful would happen to him. Plus he could do with a legal guardian he had heard nightmares about the Japanese foster system.

Shirou looked at him weighing up all his sins all the people he murdered and forgave him for it. He felt older and wiser and more mature just watching Kiritsugu's history. While he would never follow any of Kiritsugu's ideals seeing what the end result would be he cannot fault him for his good intentions.

Shirou realised he had been staring to long and nodded as he did noticing Kiritsugu's smile. He had truly saved a man tonight.

"You should get some sleep," Kiritsugu said, "I'm going to have to go hypnotize the doctor so he doesn't draw attention to your miraculous recovery."

He got up and walked to the door. Just before he stepped outside he paused.

"Ah before I go I forgot to ask your name," he said looking embarrassed at such a ridiculous oversight.

Shirou contemplated for a brief moment. His old name was something he no longer felt an attachment to. He didn't feel like taking the name Emiya as it had so much baggage with it.

There was one name however that he could use. He believed its owner wouldn't mind him using it.

"Inke," he said. "My name is Shirou Inke."

 **Author Note**

 **Hello, as you can see this is my first story. I often read a lot of fanfiction and have also often thought about writing some. I have come into a minor amount of free time due to finishing university and now am going to us this free time to try and focus on this one story I have so far. I appreciate any feedback whatsoever. I basically wrote out this first chapter in one night trying to get some needed momentum going and this 3000 words has wiped me out. I really like the type-moon verse for its interesting and flexible magic system that both infringes on and is infringed upon by the mundane world as well as its many diverse works that can be blended. However I am bound to get things wrong with the lore because I never could scrape together the money to attend The Clocktower. Please be patient and I will correct things if it doesn't interfere with the story too much.**


	2. Getting his feet wet

**Shirou**

"Kiritsugu must have been cursed," Shirou thought as he contemplated the abomination that was their current kitchen. The oven was burnt, blackened to an extent he didn't think capable with modern appliances, the sink was full of some blue foul-smelling liquid that quite frankly he didn't have the balls to analyse and worst of all the resulting mess was a frankly inhospitable landscape that stood as a monument to chef skills so tremendously poor that he wouldn't even dare to test Avalon against it.

"Omelette rice," Shirou said, his face frozen in a rictus of incredulity. "How is it possible to mess up Omelette rice so poorly?" Seriously it beggared belief; maybe Kiritsugu had some kind of hidden sorcery trait like "epically poor cooking" that tainted his every attempt turning really simple meals into a hellish landscape of pain, terror and humiliation. Shirou had survived the past week by using his newly found power in order to add [edible] the list of attributes that the food possessed in order to be able choke it down but there were two problems with that.

Firstly he had to witness the attributes of the food and see the "skill" that went into making it. That in itself was a trial as every attempt stretched his rapidly failing sanity further. He watched with ever growing astonishment at Kiritsugu's attempts feeling ensuing emotions of shock, awe, humour, disgust all leading up to a numb feeling.

Shirou tentatively poked the omelette portion which had somehow been able to take on the feeling of glass tapping it and listening to the tak-tak-tak noise that signified a screw up.

The second reason was that it grew harder and harder every time to add that so much desired [edible] trait. He had already given up on even attempting adding the [tasty] trait after his first meal. His new power needed no prana but it required incredible amounts of focus and either watching Kiritsugu's many failures were draining him of his willpower or the food was evolving and adapting against Shirou's attempts. Realistically he knew that Kiritsugu's cooking while tremendously awful didn't quite possess the sentience necessary to adapt to his new power only allowing the first option which was useful showed him the limits of the ability.

When he had told Kiritsugu about his new ability he was shocked. He had immediately got him to try it out on other items. He had found out it seemingly required no expenditure of prana and bore some similarities to the magecraft of alteration and structural analysis only much more powerful.

While structural analysis could give a blueprint of the object it wasn't known for giving an objects history, or its purpose, or its desires. They decided to test it and after half an hour of sitting opposite each other Shirou found himself able to occasionally pick up on Kiritsugu's thoughts. Kiritsugu stopped the test right there and told Shirou to wait for him to come up with a conclusion.

For as terrifying as that ability was it was nowhere near as scary as his other ability. The ability that seemed like alteration at first was quickly found to be more powerful and different than the subject. Alteration apparently allowed a magus to alter an objects shape to fly better or be more resistant to fire. It was incredibly limited and bore some resemblance to projection or runes either changing the physical shape of an object or automatically enacting an effect through magecraft. That was when things stopped being as fun for Shirou. The ability was deadly serious and while it required him to be quite close to the object there was virtually no limit to the things he could do when in the range of that person. He had tried it on the food to make it [edible] on the oven to make it [unburnt] and after Kiritsugu's express permission and an hour of psyching himself up he used it on Kiritsugu in order to remove a blister he had got under one of his fingernails. The effects of the last trial were as horrifying as they were enlightening. Kiritsugu confirmed that rather than healing the blister it seemingly instead altered his existence so that he never acquired one.

This ability horrified Shirou, before this he had seen his abilities as a superpower, something only he had, a special thing that he could use for fun. This skill however had too many frankly unnerving uses. After this he resolved to keep his abilities hidden from all others except Kiritsugu and swore to never use his powers on another human except without their explicit permission and consent.

His abilities had some drawbacks though. It required a great amount of willpower to use, something Shirou as a child did not possess. In addition some objects were able to resist his power. After the first time he claimed Avalon he found himself unable to affect it as if either he had grown weaker or the scabbard had grown stronger. In addition while he could understand a lot of what Avalon could do he lacked context for its powers. He could understand the healing because that is an effect he can visualise. However he couldn't comprehend how it was made or what were it makers. He understood the makers were [the fae] and they made Avalon from a [certain divine mystery] but to his mind it was just way too unfamilliar for him to visualize almost as if he had to put together a puzzle with half the pieces missing.

His abilities to insert concepts into an object were similarly limited. He found he could only place concepts upon the objects that he understood or encountered before. Although the memories had faded he was aware he had eaten tasty edible food before living with Kiritsugu. When he tried to apply the word [unbreakable] on the kitchen appliances it just slid straight off. Kiritsugu theorized the likely reason is that he has not yet seen or comprehended anything he would define as unbreakable and thus had no frame of reference.

Besides that the only other limitations of the ability were the range, the time it took to use the power, his willpower and his own morals.

He took one more bite of the disgusting blasphemy against cooking everywhere noting with a feeling of abject despair that the rice was incredibly hard and yet still was quite slimy.

"I'm cooking from now in this house," he stated his voice containing no doubt or timidity. This was a thing that he would fight and die for. He would cook his food and both of them would like it. Kiritsugu looked up from his own plate and despite the normal blankness of his expression Shirou couldn't help but think he looked a bit guilty.

Kiritsugu sighed, "Fine, fine I give up. Shall we order takeout?" Shirou nodded and began to throw the remaining food away.

 **Kiritsugu**

"Ridiculous," Kiritsugu thought to himself. He had retired to his room tonight to make plans. "Utterly ridicoulous." When he had adopted Shirou he had planned to be a father to him and rescue his daughter from the Einzberns. Shirou had unknowingly derailed that plan when he introduced his new ability. Kiritsugu was aware of what it was, the imposition of a concept on a subject despite having no compatibility. It was the ability to chop the universe into pieces and rearrange it as the wielder likes. It was immediate knowledge of a subject that surpasses mere magecraft. It was the authority to bend and warp reality in a manner only approachable by the gods.

It was magic.

Shirou was a strange child. He seemed so calm and yet he always seemed to look at the universe as if it was a punchline to be enjoyed. His mind seemed far more mature than his years would allow.

Kiritsugu blanched, remembering a few days ago when he was busy planning an assault on the Einzbern castle Shirou offhandedly mentioned that Kiritsugu had killed both of his parents apparently having been killed in two separate hotels in different accidents.

Kiritsugu had tensed but Shirou had merely made a joke that because of that he wasn't travelling with him anytime soon. When he forced Shirou to talk about it, he had merely stated that he forgave him but he would really like it if he didn't get any more of his parents killed. The last part was said uncharacteristically seriously for the young man and now Kiritsugu was pretty sure he was aware of his plans with Illya.

That led to a whole other can of worms. Kiritsugu reckoned himself an incredibly poor teacher of magecraft but Shirou had to be trained. As a magician Shirou would be wanted by the mage associations, the church, various dead apostles and many other rogue magi. In addition he had heard rumours that the counterforce itself attacked those who managed reach Akasha. While he was grateful that they haven't attacked yet attacked Shirou he knew his limits. He would not be able to defend Shirou from the monsters of the world, Shirou was weak now but as a magician in time he would be able to stand up to even the strongest opponents.

A secondary concern but by no means unimportant consideration was of course his Illya. His circuits were better now but even at a hundred percent he didn't think he had a good chance of assaulting Castle Eizbern successfully. The corridors were patrolled by dozens of homunculus and many more combat golems. As a magician when he was a little older Shirou would be able to assist him, and he had in fact hinted to Kiritsugu that he was going to help.

Kiritsugu grimaced; he hated having to ask a young boy to help him where he failed. Thankfully the risk to Shirou was minimal. With some training and Avalon in his body Shirou would be fine against the worst the Einzberns could throw at him.

He retired to bed resolved that tomorrow he would start teaching Shirou magecraft.

 **Kiritsugu (Still)**

"Damn," Kiritsugu thought his kid doesn't stop surprising him. When he had come down the stairs this morning and informed Shirou he was checking his elements and circuits Shirou had immediately informed him he had twenty-seven circuits an above-average number for a magus.

Even knowing the boy previously, his new adopted son had surprised him once more his circuits were all incredibly high quality. He was certain they were of a higher quality then him but he could not tell how much higher. His od was also comparatively large at 120 units much greater than the average magus.

The good news ended there though as his element was water. This was unfortunately an element that Kiritsugu had zero experience with and he had zero chance of actually getting somebody to help teach him.

He looked down at his adoptive son a smile on his face as he observed the smug look on his face his hands behind his head and swinging his legs on the chair. He was pretty proud of his circuits it seemed and he definitely had a reason to be.

"Okay Shirou," Kiritsugu said smiling ruefully. I have both good and bad news. Good news is you're going to be a very strong magus. Bad news is I have zero ability to teach you anything about water manipulation."

He looked down into the eyes of his son who was sitting back looking at him with a scrutinizing expression.

"Under normal circumstances I would never say this but due to the presence of Avalon inside you, this should be fine." He paused. "You're going to have to experiment on what works and doesn't work." He shook his head. "I can teach you some easy magic like reinforcement and bounded fields, but I'm afraid you're going to be spending a lot of time in the bathtub experimenting."

He looked up to see Shirou looking at him oddly. "Do you even realize how that s-," he started. "No, never mind," he continued. You realise I don't know how to activate my circuits yet, I haven't been taught."

At this Kiritsugu froze. "Ah, your magic circuits have already been awakened so I assumed you knew how to do that. No matter, the first thing you need is a trigger. It's an image in your head that you can use to flip your circuits from there dormant state to their awake state."

Shirou frowned uncharacteristically for the young boy and closed his eyes. Kiritsugu waited patiently for five minutes before with a whirring noise his sons circuits spun to life.

"The ground bursting forth with water," he said upon opening his eyes. "That's my trigger. Man who ever heard of a protagonist having water powers," he said frowning. "I'm pretty sure it's meant to be either fire or wind, waters mainly the healer." He started smiling again. "Oh well I'm pretty sure there some saying about water eroding all the hardest objects." He pumped his fist. "I'll just have to be twice as awesome and all those bad guys will be like, "Oh no he's swept us away with his amazing powers over water. We were wrong to disregard the element"."

Kiritsugu smiled, it had taken him a while but he had a feeling of Shirou now. The boy wasn't usual for his age of about eight years old. Maybe it was a natural consequence of growing up with a magus family or maybe it was the effects of touching the root but he was incredibly mature, but neither was his childish side an act but rather a portion of his personality that he deliberately indulged. His ability to get overly focused once something caught his attention and his seeming nonchalance about his past were both flaws in his character and deliberately fashioned as such. A thought struck him suddenly.

"Shirou," he said his voice deliberately still. "Have you thought about analysing yourself and trying to recover your memories?"

Shirou halted, his very motion frozen in action. A moment passed in silence.

"Yeah," he said. "I've thought about it." After a short moment he sighed. "I don't really want to." Before Kiritsugu said anything he continued. "My parents are dead and while I do have siblings I believe we were really not close. To the extent I don't have much of a sibling bond with them." He looked up at Kiritsugu again.

"Inke is not my real surname. But I don't feel like reclaiming my surname and dealing with what remains of that family." He smiled again the seriousness fading from his face. "Don't worry Kiritsugu I'm not going to leave you." He said looking smug. "The only reason I'm not taking the Emiya name is it has way too much baggage. I mean seriously a philosopher designate in one generation and a magus hunting magus in the next." He laughed again. "With my abilities I already am going to have too much heat on my heels, I don't really want to add to it."

"Is he aware of the fact he's a magician," Kiritsugu thought inquisitively. He hadn't suggested it to him but knowing Shirou he would already have figured it out.

"Now that I have unlocked my magical powers I must train to unlock my full potential." Shirou said doing a silly pose. "First to the inspiration machine and then to the bath."

Shirou ran away into the direction of the Tv, obviously going to watch one of the many shows he had indulged himself upon in the last week and for the first time in a while Kiritsugu smiled.

 **Author note. Still have momentum so I thought I should do this. This chapters a bit shorter than the previous one and contains a lot of exposition and for that I apologize. It will be still a few years until Shirou's matured that Kiritsugu and him will rescue Illya. I'm probably going to only be updating in a few more days as I plan the current story arc out. Thank you for reading and please review with anything criticisms or helpfula advice.**

 **Lastly some things about this chapter. Kiritsugu is not cursed he avoided the mud and while he is weakened I have no plans currently of him dying. Secondly Shirou's origin is not known no ritual was done to reveal it. Shirou is a true magician but he has very little idea how to currently implement his power and using it indiscriminately repulses him. Lastly the being that resided in Akasha will not show up but it will as you can see by the title have some influence in the story.**


	3. Wet and Sea

"I want to go the beach," declared Shirou, puffing out his chest. This statement declared more than it first appeared. The statement carried the declaration that not only had his water magecraft bypassed the limits that were offered to him by the pool but that he was mature enough to be able to discretely practice magecraft in the ocean without being detected as well as big and strong enough to swim in the ocean with only a minor amount of detection.

Kiritsugu sighed at this. Shirou's progress in his control over water had been nothing short of outstanding over the two years that he lived with him. However Kiritsugu had been very busy of late. For some reason there were a record number of dead apostle outbreaks over this summer and he had recently taken up work with the church in an attempt to save as many lives as possible. Needless to say he was currently on standby waiting for news of a particular vicious dead apostle that had done research into heavy crystalline structures. Apparently the dead apostle was trying to recreate the make-up of Type Mercury. It was an impossible task but one that raised the hackles of church and mage associations alike.

Kiritsugu looked at Shirou and raised his eyebrows. "Don't you have school," he said.

"Nope," Shirou replied smug. "Term ended last Friday. Even if I did go it's not as if I would learn anything." That smug look on his face widened. "First in my class and I don't have to study, if I wasn't aware of how amazing I am I would call the Japanese education system useless."

Unfortunately that was true. Shirou's personal connection to Akasha allowed him to observe and comprehend the answers at a higher level than should be possible at his age. At a mere ten years old Shirou had a better grasp of some subjects than Kiritsugu. He had to hold back a smile as he remembered the event at his English class. Shirou was not paying attention and his English teacher repeatedly tried to catch him out. For the first few times Shirou read the English words flawlessly but it continued to the extent it became an annoyance to the boy. The next time he was called out he stood and performed a flawless dramatic rendition of the text using Shakespearean English, putting on different voices while subtly mocking the teacher. It had gotten Shirou suspended for three days, during which Shirou took the opportunity to work on his magecraft, and after returning both he and the teacher decided to ignore each other.

"Don't worry dad," Shirou said. "The tiger is also off, we can go together and she can catch some sun while I find a quiet spot to practice my magecraft." He jangled his wrist displaying a simple mystic code that he built years ago, the purpose of which was to draw in water to the vicinity of his hands and infuse it with his prana. "Besides I've got this and the area around the beach is so humid it will be like I'm in my strongest form."

"The tiger as you call her might not want to come." Kiritsugu said though he didn't believe it. Despite being at each other's throats a lot of the time and the difference in age they were actually great friends. Taiga would volunteer to take care of Shirou knowing that Shirou's independence streak would not allow him to disrupt her own holiday too much.

Shirou shook his head, "All I have to do is suggest that she could use the time at the beach to pick up guys." He smirked, "You know how she's been ever since you turned her down."

Kiritsugu looked away that was not one of his happiest moments but in the end it didn't turn out too poorly. Taiga and he remained friends and Taiga had turned a portion of her boundless energy into procuring a partner before she got too old, a task which she took to failing with a remarkable aptitude.

But Kiritsugu had one trump card. "Why don't you just go swim at exciting splash," he said.

At this Shirou flushed and looked away. Shirou had gone to the indoor swimming pool a few months ago and while he enjoyed the first few times after the sixth time he came back and stated that he was never going there again. Kiritsugu had still not managed to get the story out of him but it was a good way to shut him up when necessary.

Kiritsugu took a deep breath. It was time to discourage Shirou from going to the beach with Taiga while he was not present.

 **Shirou**

"And that's how I convinced dad to let me go to the beach," Shirou recounted to Taiga as he sat on the side seat of the convertible.

"Ha, ha," Taiga chuckled uproariously. "Don't forget Shirou, you promised that I could pick the meals twice if we did this."

"Yeah, yeah," Shirou said. "Hey Taiga while you attempt to find yourself a boyfriend I'm going to do some heavy duty swimming."

"Hey, I could get a boyfriend any time I want," Taiga yelled. "In fact I have a date tomorrow." Taiga pouted. "I bet you he's going to be a kind wonderful guy and we're going to get along well."

Shirou looked at Taiga and arched his eyebrow. "Bet you it's a disaster."

"You're on," Taiga roared. "But Shirou is it okay to leave you like this to swim on your own," she said with some concern. "You're still only ten, are you sure you don't want to stay with me."

Shirou's eyes softened. "Nah, go have fun. I'm sure you've got some of your friends on the beach. If I don't meet you back by five then something terrible has happened to me and you should call my old man. He'll track me down."

"Don't even joke about that," Taiga huffed as they pulled up to the beach. While Osaka wasn't the busiest beach by far due to the fact school was out it was relatively busy. As such it definitely did not fit into his ideal of what a good place to practice his magecraft was.

As such as soon as they parked Shirou swung his feet out car flipping his body out of the seat and into the parking are. He waved goodbye to Taiga and left her to park the car as he headed down the beach in an attempt to find a more quiet stretch of water.

It took him nearly half and hour until he came to the spot. A quiet cove guarded by rocks but still allowing access to the ocean so that he could both practice his magecraft and enjoy the water.

Shirou quickly changed into his swimming attire a pair of trunks and a white t-shirt and began to warm. The image of water exploding from the ground clicked in his head and he was flooded with the soothing warmth of his magic circuits. He fed a minor amount of prana into his personal mystic code, which he privately to himself named Princess Blue, and was gratified to see about a cubic metre of water lift up and begin to hover around his hands in a vaguely spiral shape.

Shirou had after many months of trial and error found there were two ways of manipulating water. The first way was to place his hands near a source of water and inject his prana into it, eventually after a lot of training he was able to get it to a state that if his circuits were active with a nearby water source he could manipulate the water giving it simple commands like creating a shield or firing it like a bullet with only a seconds concentration. The major advantage of this was that it took relatively minimal effort. He quickly used the water gathered around his hands and fired four bullets of water in different direction against the rocks. The water travelled quickly and made dents in the rocks. Shirou frowned, he didn't have the equipment to measure the speed but he still felt the water was too slow. His water was not evadable by most humans, but that was still not good enough to deal with the inhabitants of the moonlight world.

The second way he could control the water was to simply create the water with his prana. This technique was actually based on projection that Kiritsugu had showed him. While projection was mainly based on solids Shirou had spent enough time training with water that he was able to bypass that restriction. While it cost a lot to create initially Shirou could do a lot more with it. Shirou stopped feeding prana to his mystic code allowing the water pooled around his hands to drop unceremoniously to the floor. He took a breath and briefly concentrated before summoning prana and creating about a liter and a half of water. Shirou then once again fired off four shots at the rocks noting as he did that the conjured water went quite a bit faster. This time however when the water bounced off the rocks he pulled on the connection to the water that was created of his prana and forced it to strike the rocks again and again.

That was the essence of why he wanted to train at the beach. He wanted to combine the advantages of both styles or at least eliminate the disadvantages. To that end he stepped into the water pumping his prana as he went into the ocean and forced the water to rise. He spent the next few hours trying to get as much work done as possible. Shirou created waves trying to keep his prana from flowing out of the water for as long as possible and manipulate it from a distance as well as practicing turning his prana into water efficiently.

Unfortunately the idle day was not bound to last. Shirou had succumbed to the temptation of his own cooking and started eating his lunch at 11-30 giving his circuits some time to cool off from the practice when he felt it. His sixth sense tingled as he was assaulted by the sensation of ripples. Kiritsugu had long ago taught him how to sense magic. When Kiritsugu had used a simple fire spell to show him initially he likened it to the feeling the ripples from a droplet in a glass of water.

If Kiritsugu's two line spell was a mere water drop the encroaching feeling of prana was a typhoon. Shirou shot to his feet scanning the sea for any evidence of the object that had created such a huge sensation of magecraft. He found himself involuntary sweating a bit before he forcefully calmed down. Flaring up his circuits he walked over to the meeting place of sea and sand and purposefully stuck his foot in the surf.

"[Poseidon's Eye]," he intoned and the powerful spell took effect using the medium of water to sense out all objects in a five kilometre radius. His blood went cold. There were two objects and while the first one that was floating three and a half kilometres away was fearsome it was dwarfed by the monster beneath the waves.

Poseidon's eye used his affinity of water as a medium to carry a miniscule amount of his prana. While the amount of prana was so miniscule that it could not be detected it itself served as a medium to use his special ability. However objects that contained a lot of prana would cause the small amount of prana to bounce off and thus he couldn't get an accurate reading. It would be more accurate to call [Poseidon's Eye] a reverse sensor spell as it was able to detect everything but beings with great prana.

Thus while he could detect numerous fish, a few dolphins and even a couple large sharks he was only able to get the vague impression of something about forty metres and shaped like a boat for the floating object.

The other object was even worse. Shirou could only see it as a hole in space indicating that it had blocked off one hundred percent of his prana. Worse still the blank spot that represented the monster under the waves had shifted a bit when he used his ability indicating that it had detected his prana. That required water affinity beyond what is possible for a human. Shirou was filled with both fear and trepidation at the thought of actually meeting that creature.

Still though if he was sensible he wouldn't go near either the boat or the beast. Shirou turned to walk back onto the shore and found himself utterly unable to take a step. His curiosity warred with his sense of self-preservation. With a sigh he realized his conservative side had lost. If he walked away now he would probably regret it forever. He walked forward into the ocean, sunk beneath the waves and activated his favourite spell ever.

"[Neptune's Breath]," he intoned silently as he took a deep breath water gracefully bowing out of the race into his lungs. His reserves recovered by rest and a good meal he wrapped himself in a blanket of controlled water and sped towards the boat. By all the gods he loved that ability. Technically this was the first time he had used it in the ocean but he had already tried it with both fresh and saltwater. But that had been mainly him sticking his head under the water in the bathtub. Kiritsugu had firmly vetoed him remodelling an extra room into an indoor swimming pool.

As Shirou approached the object he began to feel the ripples get stronger as if the whole boat was a construct of magecraft. He once more used [Poseidon's Eye] noting that the monster down below had not moved and that the boat was only a few hundred metres ahead of him. Swimming forward he got his first look at the boat. It was magnificent as if it had just come out of a shipyard as opposed to sailing the seas. There was not a scratch on the ship.

Coming to the side of the boat he poked his head out the water. Then he slowly lifted himself using the sea to push himself aboard. His snuck up the side of the rigging and got a first glance at the odd crew.

"What the hell?" thought Shirou almost struck dumb. This looks like some sort of seventeenth century pirate ship. "What's a thing like this doing off the coast of Osaka?" He pulled himself aboard the apparently deserted ship. "Hmm it is a nice ship though wonder if I can persuade the old man to let me keep it?" Shirou mused to himself.

"That might be little difficult I am afraid I've been allocated this ship and I wouldn't really like to give it up, ya see," a voice came from the side.

Shirou leapt to the side away from the voice noting as he did so that the empty ship was not so empty. Standing not ten feet away was a brown-bearded man wearing a disgustingly typical pirates outfit. He had the hat, he had the boots, and he had the trenchcoat. A stray thought went through Shirou's mind that he pulled the trenchcoat look off far worse than his father did.

Shirou eyed them warily, "where did you come from," he said.

At this the pirate chuckled. "You board my ship and you stand around and ask questions." At this he became serious, "No I'm afraid I'm going to have to capture you and take you to my master." He grimaced. "Sorry kid I don't really want to do this but I don't have a choice he owns my soul, ya see. Prepare yourself."

Shirou took the brief moment to examine the captain and he subsequently nearly blacked out from the information. Kiritsugu, all of the most complex appliances, even Kiritsugu's Thompson Contender which inflicted the effects of his origins onto a person. None of that compared to this.

In that brief instant he saw an army. Trapped and dammed to the vessels that they served upon in a world owned by a monster. Parade. Parade. Parade. That damned word resounded through his head showing the suffering that beast inflicted upon the trapped.

He came back to reality to block a sword heading straight towards his chest. Instantly a wall of water arose, his mystic code drawing in water from the drenched and humid atmosphere as well as the water all around the boat. He immediately counter attacked sending four water bullets at his chest but they were all dodged by an inhuman swiftness.

"Right," Shirou chided himself. "Not human don't forget about that." He immediately created another wall of water but had to jump backwards as the wall only stalled the sword swung at him by a second.

"Huh is he using some form of reinforcement on his sword," Shirou thought idly. He scanned the sword briefly and his blood ran cold. "Fuck, I'm in a reality marble. Parade is a reality marble." Somehow the monster had drawn this ship and the captain straight out of a reality marble. He wasn't sure that if he killed the captain he could just be brought back to life.

"Okay," Shirou think what can I do. "Think, think. Wait." He examined the captain using his power, that he must really name in future so he can stop thinking of it as "his power", and "oh my god he's got a gun." Shirou summoned a wave of water and threw it at the captain knocking him off balance and causing his shots to go wide.

"Hey," he said to the man trying to kill him. "Hypothetically if you were free and alive would you choose to be liberated from this?"

The captain was on his feet again almost immediately and swinging his sword, which Shirou now recognized as a cutlass at his head. "Aye lad. But what can you do."

Shirou ducked under the cutlass, the blade taking a few hairs off the top of his head. The captain continued, "I've been like this for so long I've given up hope. What can you do," he said stabbing at the off balance Shirou.

"This," said Shirou and grabbed his hand. Using the second part of his mysterious power on the water. Normally it would take a couple of seconds to gather the willpower to effect a change to an object but Shirou was intimately familiar with water in general and thus it took only a split-second to affect a change.

The concept of freezing was imposed on the water and the captain was stopped dead in his tracks, the ice had instantly frozen and prevented him from moving a single muscle.

Shirou had taken the captains statement that he would choose to be liberated from this hell as permission. Reached into the captain's very being and tore to shreds the concept of [parade] that applied to the captain.

For a second the captain froze and looked in Shirou's eyes. "Johnathon Wellberg," he said. "That is the name of the man whose eternal gratitude you possess." And with that statement he faded away to nothing.

"Ha, ha," Shirou laughed. He had done it, his first fight. He nearly died, he thought. Slowly overcome with fatigue he sank to his knees. He felt mentally drained and while he had not depleted his reserves of prana his reckless fighting had caused them to take a dip.

Suddenly he felt a ripple. Not wanting to believe it, dreading the outcome he raised his head.

The ship was filling up with other pirates. The death of the captain must have triggered something because they materialized out of nowhere. He noticed with the feeling of despair that all of them were under the effects of [parade].

"No, no,no,no," Shirou thought frantically. I won. I defeated the captain. Despair welled up as he saw guns raised. The crewmen keeping their distance. He tried to rise to get off the ship where it was safer but his legs refused to move.

"Is this how it ends," he idly thought as all the guns fired at once. He closed his eyes anticipating the pain.

But no pain came. He waited a second. Two seconds. Five seconds. The sound of gunshots kept repeating but no bullets hit him. He opened his eyes to see the back of a woman standing before him.

She was taller than he was. He estimated over a foot taller. She was tanned and wore a two piece bathing suit with a polka dot pattern. She had blond hair. And she was impossibly dangerous.

Even looking at her all his senses screamed at him to surrender. To give up. This woman was so out of his league he might as well be walking to the moon.

The woman turned around and smirked and Shirou idly noticed she had bright blue eyes.

The gunshots had not stopped but a bullet never reached her. The woman slowly and dramatically raised her hand and Shirou found himself unconsciously holding his breath.

Then she brought her hand down and the place where the pirates were standing, the boat and indeed the very space seemed to be instantly wiped from existence. The boat rocked and the lady leapt at him wrapping him up in her arms and dragging him down into the ocean below.

 **Author Note. Can you guess who the woman was. BTW Shirou never actually sensed her. She remained hidden from his sight. Against my better judgement I stayed up late to finish the story. Please read and review. I'm very tired now so goodbye.**


	4. Have you tried just whaling on him

Shirou's dreams were full of the images of bullets tearing through flesh while the image of a massive fleet of ships floated in the background of his dreams.

He started awake throwing off the covers of his bed. "Wait," he corrected, "this wasn't my bed."

The eiderdown was a deep scarlet and the combined with the soft feeling of the matress. He felt more comfortable then he had in a while. His futon at home was perfectly comfortable but this bed had ascended past the ranks of mere comfort into the realm in which only the furniture gods can go. This was the kind of bed that walked around calling all the other beds mongrels and deriding them as cheap copies.

"Wait this is stupid," Shirou forcefully pulled back his thoughts on track as he scanned some more of the room. It appeared to be some sort of medieval castle structure with stone walls and a high roof. Turning his head to the side he jerked out of bed at the sight in front of him.

To his left there was a large glass window. Outside the water was all manner of aquatic life swimming through water, he idly noticed a school of tuna. All of that was overshadowed by the dark shadow that slowly moved through the ocean. Now actually looking at it, he concluded that it must have been the beast below the waves and it was in the shape of a large whale.

"Magnificent isn't it," a voice appeared next to him. Once again Shirou started whipping his head around as he once again saw the woman that had saved him on the ship. He idly noticed now that he was not in imminent danger of dying that she was quite absurdly voluptuous in a way that most Japanese women weren't that combined with her blond hair that ran smoothly down her back and sides and her blue eyes gave her the appearance of a handsome foreigner. The second thing Shirou noticed was that she was still in the bikini that did a poor job of concealing her curves.

"If I had gone through puberty, I would probably be having distinct problems talking to you right now," Shirou said unashamedly.

"Oho, what a compliment," the lady raised her hand up to her forehead. "And from such a cutie also. You're going to break a lot of hearts when you're older kid."

She smiled. "Now tell me little magician, what's somebody like you doing in this spot of the ocean."

Shirou tensed and instinctively went to analyse the lady using his power and immediately regretted it. Sumire, apostle ancestor, and marble phantasm; these words flashed through his head accompanied by terrible meanings. Images of blood and death wormed their way inside his mind and he began to feel light-headed.

Shirou fell off the bed, a small part of his brain realizing that he was wearing pajama's now, meaning that he must have had his clothes changed by the aforementioned Sumire. His breaths felt shallow as if he couldn't get enough oxygen, and his heart was beating in his chest to the extent that it was painful. He scrambled to his feet, noting that his legs were shaking and his palms were sweaty, to see Sumire looking sadly at him.

"I see," she said, "you're just a kid. Thought so." She favoured him with a pitying look. "You're far too young to be fighting at your age. You have amazing levels of prana and as a magician you are truly a force of nature but you're just too young."

"I took down that captain didn't I?" Shirou said defensively. "He was much stronger than a human."

Sumire sighed again, "Indeed you did. It was quite a good show for somebody your age. That captain was at the level of a standard vampire; a being that surpasses human speed and toughness. You actually took him down remarkably easy. No," she shook her head, "for your age fighting at that level is exceptional. As expected of a magician, you truly stand apart from normal rationality."

"Magician," Shirou said. "I don't…"

"You're a few centuries too young to be lying to me kid." Again the female dead apostle smile showing a mouth full of fanged teeth. "I saw what you did; you took an object from his very reality marble and deleted it from existence. While I'm not an expert on magic, I am an expert on magecraft and what I saw was no magecraft."

"What do you want?" Shirou, blurted out. "Why did you save me and why are you keeping me here?"

"Who says I want anything from you kid?" Sumire replied turning away from him and heading out of the room. "Now follow me kid we've going to talk about what the next step is."

"What next step," Shirou yelled as he reluctantly followed the lady.

"Why to take down that Svelten bastard. He is definitely coming after you now." She turned to look at Shirou. "While he won't have recognized what you did as magic he would know that a young boy somehow inflicted damage on his very soul. He was already going to come over to try and capture his prize already, what you did just hastened his actions."

"Why are you helping me?" Shirou continued yelling. "You're an apostle ancestor. Shouldn't you be helping him or draining my blood or something."

"Nah, I don't really go for that factionalism bullshit and I haven't drunk human blood in five centuries. Nope it's an all seafood diet for me." She turned towards him and mock stage-whispered. "It's how I keep my figure."

They stopped at a door that had way more locks than was sensible and Sumire opened it and lead Shirou into a large room with cupboards taking up all the space from floor to roof where the air was noticeably drier. "We've arrived welcome to the crown jewel of my castle, the centre of my oceanic empire, and the place where I hold all my meetings. Welcome Shirou, to the booze room."

Shirou froze. For a moment he stood there looking at Sumire his face carefully blank of all emotions. After a while he spoke.

"Got any sherry," he said.

"Yup, third cupboard on the right," Sumire said already pouring herself some liquor from a brown bottle.

Shirou obtained a small wine glass and poured himself some while waiting for Sumire to continue.

"Any way Svelten's parade takes the souls of all the opponents he's killed. Probably woulda happened to you if I wasn't there. Svelten came here to hunt down a monster, he wants to kill it and add it to his reality marble. When Svelten obtains Moby Dick his rank amongst the ancestors will increase and the power will shift into Altrouge's camp, kinda like a discount PM."

"Okay now you're fucking with me," Shirou said deadpanned.

"It exists," Sumire said slamming her hands down onto the table, her voice already noticeably slurred. "Haven't you already sensed the monster below?"

"That's Moby Dick?" Shirou said dumbfounded. "Who the hell decided to name that thing after the book? Moreover why is some epic level phantasmal beast doing off the coast of Osaka."

"Fucked if I know," Sumire slurred. "But we gotta stop him. We're a magician and another apostle ancestor we should be able to at least put up a bit of a fight."

"How can I?" Shirou yelled. "I nearly died against the vampire. If it wasn't for your assistance I would have died in my own blood riddled with bullets." He choked back the memory. "Why do you think I'll be able to do it now?"

Sumire paused from her drinking and shook her head. "I'll probably lose to him, but if you take out enough of his minions I might be able to sink his boat. If that happens he's screwed. Dead apostles can't swim and he's a pirate so that means he can't swim twice over."

"But you saw how I did I lost I couldn't do anything against all those crew there were just too many." He looked up at Sumire who was giving him a curious glance. I'm not strong enough.

Sumire swirled her liquor looking contemplatively. "Do you know why you lost?" At Shirou's dumbfounded look she continued. "You had post battle fatigue, probably as a result of the fact that this was your first battle ever. Your prana reserves were fine. Even throwing water around like a drunken monkey you could have swept the board with those suckers." She took a gulp of the liquid. You had no injuries, you weren't even tired. That's quite impressive for your age. Care to tell me what mystic code you had to keep you going so strong and if there's a copy."

She paused, "Nah probably not." She winked. "If your stamina stays as good I may have to ask you to come see this poor onee-sama when you're older."

Shirou flushed deliberately not thinking about the fact that she was still only wearing that bikini.

"Secondly," and at this she paused looking drunk but serious. "You're too slow by miles both your reaction time and your actual movement speed are while very good for a ten year old still far below what you need to be able to fight against these opponents. Seriously the only reason you were able to survive against that man was because you stayed out of melee till the end, the boat was wet and that limited his speed and the fact that he wasn't really trying to kill you."

Shirou took a sip of his sherry looking downcast as if he knew what he was going to happen.

"So my question is this." She affixed him with a stare her eyes briefly flashing. "From what I've seen the fourth magic deals with analysing an object's," at this she paused. "Origin, character, role, concept, something like that and changing it. What is so scary in your past that you refuse to even acknowledge your own origin?

They sat in silence for ten minutes. Shirou sipping his sherry delicately while Sumire demolished her liquor with the subtlety of a rat in a cheese store.

Finally Shirou spoke, "About two years ago I lost everything in a fire my family died in front of me and the pain was unbearable, I think."

"You think," said Sumire turning away from her rapidly depleting wine collection. She made a gesture with her hands as if to tell him to continue and stop stalling.

"I lost my memories of them in the fire. I remember some basic information such as the fact that I had siblings and I think I had a grandfather but aside that." He tapped on his head. "Empty."

"I see. So you want to avoid the pain that you will feel when you remember what you lost. No that's understandable but not completely the truth." Sumire looked into his eyes looking past the pools of liquid; her gaze seemed to dig about into his skull. "Hmm, I see." She looked at him. "You're scared."

"I'm not," Shirou yelled.

"No, you are," Sumire spoke resolutely. "That's okay to know oneself is the scariest possible thing you can do. I've seen strong men learn they are weak, good men learn they are evil and brave men learn they were cowards all along." She put down the bottle of alcohol she was currently pouring. "That knowledge can kill a man just as surely as blade or poison. But unfortunately you are in no position to hold back. Enemies are sure to come for you and as a magician your enemies will be greater than most." She paused, "look kid I like you. I don't really need a helping hand in taking out that Svelten bastard. But you need to see the fight. You need to learn what you're up against." She quickly stole the remaining sherry out of Shirou's hands and downed it in one gulp. "Are you ready to do this?"

"Yes Sumire, I think I…"

"Onee-sama," Sumire corrected.

"What," Shirou deadpanned.

"In exchange for giving you that advice I want you to call me Onee-sama." Sumire crossed her arms beneath her breasts.

Shirou smiled a trace of nostalgia from a source he couldn't identify coming over him. "Thank you, Onee-Sama."

Sumire squealed, "Oh, I could just eat you up. Wait not actuallt eat you, I said I don't eat humans, more like eat you sexually but it's platonic."

They both paused for a moment. "Let's just do this," Shirou said and focused his powers on himself.

The first thing he noticed was Avalon, his constant companion. He had seen a hell of a lot of use of it over the years. From burns when he was cooking, to the time he cut most of his finger off while cooking to the time he got a whole jar of chili paste in his eye when…

Now that he thought about maybe chefs walk with death as well.

Past Avalon he saw the memories of his last two years with Kiritsugu. He examined his time at school; while he was on good terms with some people he didn't have any close friends. His magic was a large portion of his life and it was something he could not share that subsequently set him apart from his compatriots. Even then he still found himself taking an interest in his fellow children's lives. Their worries and concerns were so petty now but they each contained a seed of the person they would become.

He saw his many experiments at cooking. While he started barely a fraction over Kiritsugu in skill his mastery of the culinary arts had rapidly swelled and he had reached the coveted designation of being actually pretty good. He enjoyed cooking and teasing the tiger with his cooking as well as subtly mocking her lack of proper housewife traits. Even then he would never deny her food. He loved cooking both native and foreign dishes and he loved the smug sense of satisfaction he got from watching somebody who was genuinely happy to eat one of his dishes.

He saw his many attempts at magecraft. Kiritsugu had always been so exasperated with his way of going about with his magecraft but there was this air of satisfaction. Unlike Kiritsugu who learnt spells that were the most effective to do his job or a typical magus who searched for the Akasha. Shirou created spells that he was either interested in, like his water breathing skill which took him eight months to get right or that looked cool like his instantaneous freeze or his multi-water bullets. While Kiritsugu tried to teach him how to make a bounded field Shirou succeeded magnificently in the most infuriating way possible. He memorized it and then created a weak boundary field and using his magic altered it to be conceptually identical to the bounded field Kiritsugu set up. Shirou still laughed at his reaction to this day.

He came to the memories of the fire. While they were bad and he still shivered at the feeling of absolute evil contained in the flames he had long come to terms with the event.

He saw the gap a portion of his memories, his soul that had been burnt out by the fire. He hesitated for a fraction of a second and then took the plunge.

"It was too easy," were his thoughts. He remembered his parents' names and he shed a silent tear for them. He was a baby that was never planned to happen but they had loved him anyway. Three children were considered too much for a magus family but his parents had never made him feel like he wasn't wanted. They had spoken to him once when he was younger about learning his own magecraft distinct from the Aozaki family and they believed he would become a great magus beyond compare. It was ironic but the very day after they died he reached Akasha and became a magician. Nowadays his magic tended towards cool and powerful elemental spells.

His siblings had left before he had even been able to read and aside from some brief half-faded memories he had no recollection of them at all.

He remembered his grandfather a strict old man who he did not remember having any good recollections of. He obviously wasn't important to me.

He looked up to notice Sumire staring at the wall. He felt wetness on his face and realized that his tears weren't actually so silent after all. Wiping his eyes he once again focused on his very being. His body, soul and mind were now all analysed, quantified, aggregated and translated into a record of his existence. He was [Shirou].

He stopped shocked. There was one part of his soul that he wasn't able to quantify. No he wasn't even able to analyse the anomaly. He dug deeper into the records of his existence and came across one memory, one portion of his being that refused to be forgotten and assimilate into the greater collective. It was the memory of the voice in Akasha. Even today after having seen true monsters in the form of a dead apostle ancestor and a living world filled with countless ships that being still stood head and shoulders above the creatures that existed on Gaia.

Shirou smiled ruefully, "How could I have forgotten," he mumbled to himself. "When I survived the fire, when I returned from the root, when I claimed Avalon, I took the name of the strongest being I have ever met." He clenched his fist his eyes shining with determination. "And one day I'm going to live up to that name," he stated his resolve renewed.

[Shirou Inke]

xxx

They sat aboard some kind of rickety raft that Sumire had dragged out of one of the many rooms of the castle. The day had long turned to dusk and while Sumire was humming to herself while idly fishing, Shirou had spent the time just examining himself. While he wasn't naturally narcissistic, and he would deny that he was until his dying breath. He was well aware that his body had always been in good condition. He trained fairly frequently and he was both pretty strong and fast for his age, the presence of Avalon letting his body build up muscle quickly when exercising.

Now however he saw it in a different light. His body was tough yes, but it was full of imperfections, parts that were not strong enough and parts that sluggishly accomplished their job with a mere adequate performance. Compared to Sumire's body, and at this he stealthily looked at the women next to him, his body was simple wheel and pulley set compared to a production line. The female vampire next to him noticed him looking and gave him a sultry look. "Ahh, Shirou you're looking at me again." She put her hands on her cheeks and shook her head. "Could it be he's entranced with my beauty? Is he dreaming of taking me away and ravishing me?"

Shirou coughed, "Firstly I doubt anybody could do anything to you against your will. Secondly and I mean this in an entirely platonic way, your body is incredible."

"Oh," Sumire replied as she started flexing her arms, "are you checking out these guns."

"Something like that, but it's different. Not only are there no perfections in your body but it appears to be unrealistically strong. I mean I can see how it was efficient and effective it is. Much more than any human I've seen but it appears to work better than can be physically explained." Shirou shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not explaining it well enough am I?"

"Ahh," Sumire snapped her fingers. "Mystery, yeah it's something that all old things get. Moby down below is probably dripping in it. Usually only phantasmal beasts and us ancestors get it. Maybe as a magician you can get it if your body diverges enough from what can be called human. Don't worry about that now. It makes things tougher."

Sumire looked quizzically at him. "Didn't you learn this at magus school?" She smiled, "Or are you one of those guys that just plays around with magecraft until you find something that works." She smiled at Shirou's flustered look. "Don't worry I like guys like that," she said.

"Now onto the important stuff," she paused, "why is your bracelet flashing."

"It's kind of my alarm that says I've stayed out to late. I'm going to get an earful from my old man when he gets to me." He blushed at that.

"Okay," Sumire smiled, "now for the important one, why are you sitting on a raft waiting for a showdown with a dead apostle ancestor who can kill you with a snap of his fingers." She continued smiling as she pulled on she cast out her rod again. "Doesn't seem to conducive to your overall health does it now."

Shirou gazed out at the ocean. "It's simple his reality marble, Parade, disgusts me. While Im usually easy-going about most things, that thing is not something I can permit to exist in my ideal world." He turned towards Sumire and smiled. "Besides I can analyse you remember, you haven't killed anybody in the last four centuries, you're a pussycat."

Sumire was suddenly standing over him faster than he could react to her hands on his shoulders in an iron embrace. "What did you say brat," she said her voice crushing in its intensity.

Shirou looked at her and then slowly raised his hand and petted her face. "Pussycat," he said.

Sumire fell down laughing. Then she leapt up immediately no sign of playfulness. "He's here," she said no trace of humour in her voice.

Shirou stepped to the edge of the raft and dipped his foot in the water. "[Poseidon's eye]," he intoned ignoring the strange look Sumire gave him and definitely not blushing.

Immediately as his prana dispersed through the water he felt Moby Dick, who was much closer to the surface now. But that wasn't what shocked him, the fleet of sixty ships was what momentarily made him lose his breath.

Sumire jumped up and started stretching. "I guess playtime is over huh," she said sounding disappointed. "And I could be drinking booze, Shirou this is why you don't owe people favours."

She suddenly yelled out, "Svelten you bastard turn back and let me get back to my drinking or you'll regret it."

The words echoed for a brief moment. Sumire appeared relaxed but quickly analysing her Shirou could tell she was on guard.

The strike came in an instant one second Sumire was standing by his side and the next she had backhanded a cutlass that was headed slice Shirou in two with her right hand and with her left hand had chucked him in the direction of the boats. Shirou had only got enough time to get a brief glimpse of the vampire Svelten, idly noticing that he looked too young for a man with white hair, before he was sent soaring hundreds of metres towards the boats. He didn't bother activating [Neptune's Breath] but instead wrapped the water around and flung himself on to the boat.

 **Sumire**

"Damn, he stuck the landing nicely," she thought idly as she battered away another cutlass blow from Svelten, idly adjusting the air around the blade to keep the edge away from her knuckles.

"Rita better thank me for this," she thought. "Nah, actually I had a good time, got to meet had some liquor and even went whale watching. What kind of nation could harm those magnificent beasts," she thought unknowingly making Shirou feel defensive as he blasted off a crew zombies head with a high pressure blast of water.

She swung a fist at Svelten and as he moved to block it, discretely used her marble phantasm and whacked him with the air that surrounded both of them causing him to fly back forty metres where a boat appeared out of nowhere below him and he landed on the deck.

"Geez, you getting jealous seeing me with a younger guy Svelten," Sumire gave him a wink. "Sorry luv it would never work out between us. You're just not my type."

"As usual your wit lacks something vital, Sumire. Actual humour. That insect managed to destroy one of my favourites, I couldn't let him live for that insult." He paused, "it's not too late Sumire all I want is the boy and the whale. You can still leave without recompense, I am dead apostle number eight while you are only dead apostle number twenty-two. I am feared throughout the world as a harbinger of calamity while you are tolerated as a drunken layabout." He looked at her one more time sizing her up. "Go back to your bottles Sumire before I send you to Davy Jones' Locker."

"Okay," Sumire said still cheerful. "I'll just go... SURPRISE ATTACK!

At that she reached to the world around her and translated her position right in front of Svelten's smug face punching down with all her might. He attempted to block with his cutlass but the mystic code that was probably worth more than the vaults of some magus families snapped like a twig and he was forced to jump back. The deck shattered beneath the awesome force of Sumire's punch and a crack appeared along the middle of the boat nearly splitting the whole thing. Svelten looked shocked for a moment then he simply sighed.

"So be it," he said. Behind him from nowhere men started to materialize. Some wore pirate's clothes, some wore clothes from various navies and some wore no identifying outfits at all.

Some carried pistols, some carried swords and some even carried mystic codes. Confronted by the mass of opponents Sumire merely smiled, bunched up her fists and charged.

 **Shirou**

"I think I underestimated how tough this bastard must be," Shirou thought to himself as a ripple of heated and pressurized water burst through the maw of a shark killing it instantly.

His battle had started fine he had boarded the ship and immediately decapitated the first man to cross his path with a single kick. His new style hastily developed while sitting watching Sumire fish, well to be honest it sucked. Shirou hated to use reinforcement despite Avalon healing him of all his wounds because he despised the fact that the difference between perfect reinforcement and a disastrous failure was so close together as to be only a fraction of a unit of prana. Even when he finally started analysing himself six or seven hours ago he didn't feel like using reinforcement. This was mostly down to the fact that it was such a generic style of fighting and partly because he couldn't remember how to do it.

So he had improvised in the six or seven hours while trying to keep his mind off the fact that he was gearing up to help take on an ancestor and he had come up with a sloppy solution that he was sure without the use of Avalon would have sent him to the hospital.

Shirou's magic may have been already been unique in the world but he tried his best to make his magecraft also. Kiritsugu mainly used time-alter magecraft handed down by his clan but he when he used minor manipulation of the elements he used some western style. That was when Kiritsugu dropped the news to Shirou that while many people using the thaumaturgical foundation makes it more durable and less likely for spells to fail this had the downside of making it weaker.

Shirou was not impressed and the result had led to him with both the power of his magic and his unmatched creativity and determination to create his own foundation. This was done by him writing a close to one hundred page report on how his spell foundation developed, what the various principles are and a few frankly embarrassing rants about the superiority of water as an element. Shirou was inspired by the gods and the idea of the age of the gods and so he tried to fill his brand of magic with "magic that could have been used by gods."

Quite frankly that was the pinnacle that his magic had ever been used for. Trying to impart the quality of "realness" on a fake magical system so that Gaia would not reject it had taken him over a thousand tries and months after months of work. Even then he had to shore up the system every fortnight as a few cracks would appear.

This newness gave him an instinctive knowledge over how to create new spells in a far shorter amount of time at the price of having to shore up the foundation a lot sooner. His new spells that he developed was his way of replicating and in time improving on the standard reinforcement. He called it [Ryuijin's perfect body] a technique that manipulated the water in his body hardening the water in the skin cells and manipulating the water in his muscles to move his limbs faster than ever before.

Using that new form he had gone through the first ship like a typhoon through a village. His hands were propelled forward with humongous speed and pressure, easily crushing the bones and breaking the body of those who appeared before him. While any bullets or weapons coming his way did very little damage to his hard skin. Due to inexperience he mainly focused on reinforcing his front and summoned water to block off any attempts at flanking him. Anybody who had escaped his melee range was brought down by gusts of seawater, his own conjured water or even their own blood that littered the deck.

Within no time whatsoever the ship was cleared and he had dived into the water to track down the next ship. That was where the problems appeared.

Apparently Parade keeping the soul and thus the power of whatever it killed didn't apply only to sailors. Instead Shirou found himself battling against a hoard of sharks. These foes were significantly tougher than the sailors. The first one had nearly taken his head off and the subsequent retaliatory punch that would have killed a sailor only knocked the shark back to retreat and try again. What was worse was that the sharks were actively preventing him from heading for the other ships. He had long dropped [Ryuujin's perfect body] and now was using both [Poseidon's eye] and [Neptune's Breath] liberally to stay alive.

Shirou quickly manipulated the water sending spikes of moving water that did nothing but give the shark a gentle push. "Think Shirou," he said to himself. "What can I do? Temperature changes are out, they're sharks and I don't know what species half could be tropical and the other half could be polar. I can't use the pressure to crush them because while I do that I'll be vulnerable." He shook his head if only there was some way of making waves of water deadly underwater. His head snapped up. "That's it." He grabbed a handful of water and chucked it at a shark swimming below him, as he released the handful he altered the water using his magic to add the concept of explosive to it.

It should be noted that Shirou had not yet gained the wisdom and ability to moderate his conceptual imprinting. Only the fact that he hastily reapplied [Ryuujin' perfect body] stopped all his internal organs from being destroyed. As it was he was flung out of the water landing on the deck of a ship. He looked up to see both Sumire and the vampire with white hair staring at him. Standing up he casually ran his hands across his body checking for injuries, causally ignoring the two vampires standing there as well as the lakes of blood that covered the deck.

"You," the white haired vampire Svelten said. "You're the one that cost me one of my favourite captains. It was a grave mistake coming here. I'm going to feed you to the fish."

Shirou ignored him, while he still looked okay and had taken no massive injuries he was really in no condition to fight. His reckless use of his new magic as well as Avalon healing all the cuts and scrapes he got had left his prana at barely over a third.

"Ready to take this guy down," he shouted to Sumire with false bravado.

Sumire smiled back, "ha, we're probably going to both die."

"Fools," Svelten said. "I'm going to have you begging for mercy by the time I'm done with you." More men started materialising behind his back. "And then I'm going to take that damn whale and then AHHHHHHHHH." His voice trailed off into incoherent screaming.

Suddenly the ship they were on as well as all his crew flickered and faded and Sumire, Svelten and Shirou all fell into the ocean.

Sumire and Shirou merely bobbed up and down while Svelten flailed his weakness to water and inability to swim coupled with his mysterious injury left him incapacitated just staying afloat.

Suddenly Shirou was blinded by a bright light. He heard the noise of an engine approaching and rubbed his eyes furiously to clear them. What he saw made him pale. Kiritsugu stood at the boat and he didn't look happy. Without saying a word he brought up his Walther WA2000 and shot Svelten in the head. He then repeated the action again and again until he stopped regenerating and his body had sunk beneath the waves.

Only then did he look at Shirou, "I'm not happy," he said, confirming Shirou's suspicions, "but I'm glad you're okay."

He lifted his hand and pulled Shirou up into the boat. Sumire had somehow got into the boat while nobody was looking.

"Thanks for not shooting me." She said with a smile.

Kiritsugu just drew out a cigarette and started smoking as he started up the engine. "I do want to survive to raise my boy you know." He took another drag. "If I shot you I doubt I would have gotten out alive."

Sumire just gasped, "I could never hurt one of Shirou's friends." She raised an eyebrow out of interest how did you manage to track down Shirou.

Kiritsugu didn't answer but Shirou's eyes flickered down to his bracelet momentarily. "I see." She said.

"Pity today's over," she continued, "you never got to see the whale."

At that Shirou's eyes widened and he looked at Kiritsugu pleadingly.

"I should make that your punishment," Kiritsugu said looking down at Shirou.

"It's a phantasmal beast," Shirou said with a note of desperation in his voice.

Kiritsugu sighed and turned to Sumire. "Do you have a way of calling it up he asked."

"Why of course," Sumire replied and stuck her hand in the water. "Marble Phantasm."

The night was silent for about twenty seconds and then about a hundred metres away the water exploded. The waves buffeted the boat and a dark silhouette blocked out the stars as the whale drifted closer Shirou's mouth dropped open in astonishment, Sumire started grinning madly and even Kiritsugu dropped his cigarette. The whale was huge but greater by far were the ripples it sent to the world just by existing. Shirou analysed the beast and was overcome by the history of it, it was so old and so powerful. A creature that had seen the end of the age of the gods and a creature with so much mystery it warped the world just by existing.

Shirou reached out and he felt that the beast was weighing him up for the moment. And then the beast moved close enough to touch and Shirou laid a hand upon its skin. It felts like nothing he ever saw before and for the first time he comprehended that this beast was not made out of earthly materials but fantasy itself. Overcome with emotion and the stress of the day Shirou fell into a faint with a smile on his face.

For his stunt with the dead apostle ancestor Shirou was grounded for a month. Sumire stopped by from time to time invading their household and teaching Shirou water magic. Shirou was never allowed to go to the beach. Taiga's date failed to a quite excessive degree.

 **Author note. This was my longest chapter so far. I was going to post halfway through but I didn't feel like an all talking chapter. As I am a new answer I will endeavor to answer all the reviews I get in the hope that it will encourage people to tell me when I fuck up.**

 **DPSS, Alucard Bellsing, The Rupture congrats for being correct.**

 **Rangle Technically he already is a monster. But you're correct. While Zelretch and Aoko are both monsters it is a thing they grow into. Shirou is monstrously strong for a ten year old.**

 **I wonder if you noticed anything. I can't exactly tell you what servant (if any he's going to get) but yes Shirou will be a master of H2O**

 **Guest its not about how hard it is to use the first magic but that it had no immediate methods for life saving. Kiritsugu used Avalon more while saber was gone and Shirou was more injured. He was dying in the hospital. While a master of first magic could probably materialize a cure anything pill at that stage Shirou couldn't.**

 **Darkjaden The fourth magic basically boils down to manipulation of concepts, truth, origin as explained in this chapter. In the typemoon verse everything that exists is recorded by Akasha. Shirou's power allows him to change the records. The power is as broken as it sounds. There is a quote from the wiki about magic that says "if only it ended at the third." The way I've chosen to interpret it in this fic is that the forth and the fifth are by far the most dangerous with the ability to change the past and alter the records they could do some serious damage to society if misused. Do you know counterguardians normally kill new magic users. Shirou isn't dead because he is currently hidden from Alaya's sight. As he grows older that protection will wane however.**

 **Please read and review. I'm finding this writing quite addictive. I will attempt to take a break while I prepare the next arc. Don't be afraid to criticize.**


	5. Puddling out his state of seaing

A knife sliced smoothly through flesh, scarlet liquid bursting from the wound. The bone inside was extracted from the pile of meat and subsequently discarded; its presence irrelevant for this experiment. The skin was carefully dug out and placed to one side; its purpose would come later. Hands intimately skilled with a knife came down chopping the meat further, rending down the tissues further until nothing remained but pulp.

With that done Shirou finished off the rest of his beef sandwich.

"Needs mayo," he thought as he bit into the product of his experiment into simple western cooking.

His hands went groping towards the vessel. He delicately, inch by inch, stripped it of all its coverings. Awkwardly he lifted the piece to eye level and, satisfied by the amount, began to jerk it back and forth waiting for it to discharge its creamy white contents.

Shirou stood up having finished munching the food that he had made to pass the time. Sumire was coming today and she had promised to help him with a problem he had recently. When Shirou had finished the fight he was eager to try out his new move. During his long grounding when he wasn't allowed out of the house he tried to perfect it and only it. He forwent training his normal manipulation of water and the only practice he got with his magic over that two month period was fixing the fucking spell foundation system. He sighed remembering that. It had taken him two-and-a-half years for him to get that thing perfect. Even now six months after it was all fixed up he still dreaded the sign of thaumaturgical drift and spells functioning incorrectly.

Anyway the result of that was he had consistently had magical energy flowing throughout all the cells of his body. At first he either used too much or too little causing the spell to fail after about an hour or so he got better and he began to be able to hold it for longer and longer. He went from only using the water in the skin in his arms and the muscles in his limbs to sending magical energy into all his skin and muscles. From there as the duration that he could hold it increased he decided to play around and, trusting in Avalon, send prana into his bloodstream and all the major organs. The last bit was his nervous system which he avoided until he woke up one day having gone to sleep using [Ryuujin's Perfect Body] and woken up with every single drop of water in every cell in his body packed with prana. He initially panicked and not wanting to tell Kiritsugu simply shut off the spell and decided to take time off practicing.

From there he went downstairs to make a morning cup of coffee for Kiritsugu and tea for himself and promptly shattered the first cup he had picked up. Jumping back he put his hand against the counter to steady it and he left an imprint of his left hand on the counter due to the wood being crushed. Slipping down he fell on the floor and caused a crack on the wooden floor as well. Kiritsugu had come into the room trying to figure what the hell had happened and found him frantically trying to fix piece together the broken things using some half remembered magecraft that Kiritsugu informed him about months ago.

His dad had quickly calmed him down and had him explain what had happened. He had then done a diagnostic and discovered that Shirou's body was radiating prana even with his circuits closed.

He quickly called his school and claimed that Shirou needed time off his classes for medical reasons which was strictly true. From then on he had instructed Shirou to immediately discontinue the use of his circuits and meet him in the dojo.

For the next three hours Shirou was made to go over repetition after repetition of exercise and each time Kiritsugu measured the forces behind his strikes as well as the speed that he moved. The results were mindblowing to say the least and at the end of the testing Shirou found himself with an unusual problem. He hit too hard and moved too fast. A single punch could quite easily kill a human and single step crushed the ground and propelled him far into the air and any weaker blows would just bounce off him.

His dad was quite worried about that so he did the only thing he could do in this situation and incredibly reluctantly called Sumire.

Sumire as usual was happy to help and when she had arrived she had dropped the mother of all revelations on Shirou. By constantly filling every cell in his body for over two months he had unconsciously altered his body to such an extent that it could no longer be called human. She revealed that just by existing his cells were generating mystery and that was the substance that was making him stronger. She had offered to be his sparring partner for a weak in order to have him learn how to control the power of those strikes. Just thinking about it had left him shivering

xxxx flashback xxxx

"So Shirou you want to learn how to fight," Sumire said shadowboxing against the wall, still wearing her bikini, her bottles of alcohol confined to the corner of the room. "Been hitting the gym and now you need to learn how to throw a punch. Well it won't be easy but I've certainly had to train worse in the past." Sumire stood back hands on her hips. "Now attack."

Knowing how strong she was Shirou didn't miss the opportunity to launch an attack at her. A straight punch that aimed for the centre of her mass he put his all behind it, cratering the floor and creating a visible shockwave that was avoided entirely by Sumire as she executed a perfect judo move and grabbed his arm throwing him over her hip and onto the wooden floor of the dojo. He lay in the indent of his body on the wooden floor unmoving as he tried to get his mind around what the hell just happened.

"I don't think I'm going to like how this training goes," he said, his voice deadpan.

"Nah, it'll be fun," Sumire said lifting him up by his arms. "You just picked up a tiny amount of mystery and now you have to learn how to use it. We'll have you fighting like a phantasmal beast in no time."

"Have you got any idea how this happened," Shirou happened. At Sumire's quizzical look he continued. "Look this is obviously a good thing as it made me stronger and I need the strength if I'm going to survive but what if something like this happens again. I've heard horror stories of some of the things that dead apostles turn into I don't want to worry about that."

"It's supremely unlikely to happen kid," Sumire exposited. "Firstly you had to flow magical energy into your cells and keep it there just sitting doing nothing for like, what two months. Then you are what I am now calling conceptually malleable, this is probably as a result of your magic as it were. In future you," at this she set Shirou down and glared at him, "are going to be monitoring your own record so you can prevent this type of drift. Thirdly you most likely were using Avalon like an idiot just healing and fixing with no regard. Your body must have had a party and thought it could do anything it wants." At this she through her arms up in the air. "I can't believe King Arthur ever lost with that cheating item. He must have been a total jabroni."

Shirou suddenly observed his father develop a coughing fit out of the corner of his eye.

Sumire's voice softened, "look we all drift away from what could be called strictly human as we age. It's a natural part of life, but you need to slow down before it kills you."

She smiled once again, "thankfully your big sister is here to beat the stupid out of your body Shirou." She waved her hands in a "come hither" gesture. "Now again."

xxxx end flashback xxxx

Sumire was true to her word and just after a week sparring with her he was able to walk normally. He still kept to himself keeping away from the crowds by necessity he didn't want his control to slip and to accidentally pulp somebodies hand. This had given him the appearance of an aloof individual and his constantly outstanding marks had given him a reputation of a school idol that quite frankly he neither wanted nor was particularly happy about. Hopefully next year when he entered high school his classmates would be more sensible and he could put this whole garbage behind him. Sumire said she would come around ten but she was almost consistently late.

Shirou got his jacket and stepped out into the chill autumn air. Sumire had promised that she would find him a suitable human that he could learn from. Quite frankly he was getting tired of getting his ass kicked by Sumire and being smugly informed that she was much weaker on land. While he was fast and strong, he lacked the fine motor control to outmanoeuvre her and he was well aware that going blow for blow with her would end up with his head going straight through the floor.

Hell the one time he had cheated and snuck in some water magecraft she had simply dodged, congratulated him on some fine water magic and hit him with her marble phantasm. After that she informed him that if he was going to break the rules he must be sure to take her out in the one hit.

Shirou walked down the streets of Fuyuki marvelling at the shades of yellow and red that the trees displayed. The streets were surprisingly empty for seven o' clock on a Saturday he only past a mom and her kids and a couple of salarymen. While normally he would be going to school he had not missed a day in a couple of months and he was already near the required attendance. His father was fine if he missed school as long as he kept up his grades and it furthered his magecraft. As a magician he was a possible target and he needed to continually improve lest he be killed. He anticipated missing a few days in the future tracking down Sumire's elusive human trainer.

Suddenly a flash of gold appeared in the corner of his eye. He grinned and then headed towards the man he just saw.

"Hey Gilgamesh, how are you doing." The man turned to look at him. He had gold hair, red eyes with regal features and stood a lot taller than he did. This was Gilgamesh and he was not a vampire.

Truth be told and he hated to remember it he and Gilgamesh had a very embarrassing first meeting. It was when he was much younger and he had the bad habit of not regulating his magic. He met Gilgamesh at the pool, that he later found out Gilgamesh owned and upon scanning was overcome by the power and beauty of his existence. He remembered loudly exclaiming how beautiful Gilgamesh was and the sound of his voice echoing in the pool area before he came to his senses and scarpered.

He refused to go back there for quite a few months until his embarrassment died down. Upon meeting Gilgamesh again he manned up and explained to Gilgamesh that he was sorry about blurting that out but he had a beautiful existence and that he was momentarily overcome.

To that Gilgamesh simply nodded and acknowledged him as a person who simply sees the world as it is. He then gave Shirou some advice that he followed to this day. He advised him not to overuse his sight or it will lead to nothing but isolation as he begins to set himself apart from humanity and begins to see humans as nothing but simple quantities. Something in the way Gilgamesh spoke caused Shirou to listen to his wisdom. Then Gilgamesh said to Shirou that when the time was right they would both attempt to kill each other. He then stated that when the time comes even he cannot tell who will win.

At that and noticing Shirou's reaction he stated that it is nowhere near the time as it would be a short fight as he is now. He had met up with Gilgamesh several times since then and each time Gilgamesh had instructed him to keep growing.

Gilgamesh stared at him looking him up and down silently evaluating him. "You have grown," he said finally. "But not by much," he said looking irritated. "I hope you are ready for the trial you will soon face, I will be most disappointed if you die and it isn't by my hand."

"You know something about what's going to happen Gilgamesh," Shirou asked apprehensively. While he was sure Gilgamesh wouldn't attack him he really didn't want to set Gilgamesh off and put him in one of his moods.

"Fool," Gilgamesh said but without any real heat. "There's nothing on earth I don't know, but I have zero interest in holding your hand through whatever endeavours you go on. Go ask that vampire what foolish quest she has for you. I have better things to do."

With that he turned and left leaving Shirou smiling sheepishly. He enjoyed talking to Gilgamesh. Once you got past the arrogance and the general poor disposition he could be very wise in his own way. In all honesty Gilgamesh always struck him as person who was severely depressed. He couldn't remember a single time that he ever saw him truly happy.

With a shrug of his shoulders he turned around and headed home. Gilgamesh while egotistical was very rarely wrong and that meant whatever Sumire had found was important.

He headed indoors noting that the bounded field had been tripped and that meant that Sumire was probably busy raiding the fridge.

He walked into the kitchen and there sure enough were the hindquarters of the resident underwater vampire rifling through the fridge.

"Hey," she said turning around. "Your fridge sucks, come on Shirou you're usually so good about this," she waggled her finger. "Couldn't you have made something for your big sister?"

"Too be honest I didn't expect you to arrive so early," Shirou said sheepishly. "It's not even nine and you said you would arrive at ten, arriving early is the most unSumire thing I've ever seen you do."

"I ran out of booze," she admitted shamelessly. "Where's Kiritsugu."

"Dad's meeting a magus to get some mystic code or something. You said you found my tutor?"

"I've found a "human","at this she lifted her hands putting her fingers in quotation marks, "who should be able to teach you." She lifted out a file that looked surprisingly professional for the drunken layabout standing before Shirou.

"Kouma Kishima." Shirou said as he idly flipped through the file. "Wait weren't the Kishima's mixed bloods?"

"Yeah this guy was apparently the perfect mixed-blood," Sumire said her voice sounding vaguely intrigued. "He's meant to be like a demon in human form."

"His last known location was in Misaki town living with the Tohno's," Sumire said.

"Great more mixed-bloods. Wait," Shirou paused. "Misaki town wasn't that where those vampiric killings were happening."

"Is this the thing Gilgamesh was warning me about," he thought.

"I don't know I don't watch the news." Sumire said. "Listen to me Shirou, while you're at Misaki town if you ever see a man with a black trenchcoat and white hair run." At Shirou's protest she continues, "I'm serious I've heard that monster is roaming around that area. I don't think I could defeat him and that means you certainly can't."

Sumire suddenly lightened up. "By the way where is our stripy friend, I haven't seen her in forever."

Shirou shivered at that. While initially Taiga and Sumire's meeting was disastrous due to the fact he went missing at the beach and ended up with a new bigger sister, they had quickly bonded to an absurd degree. Taiga and her "marine biologist" friend were often seen hanging around town and enjoying various activities.

"She's teaching remember. That's her job."

"Oh right, I was just thinking that you should say goodbye before you get going. Your train leaves in half-an-hour," she said handing him her ticket. "So long," she said as she immediately teleported out of the house.

Shirou frantically got to work and somehow managed to pack his bags in ten minutes and get to the station with five minutes to spare. As he was about to walk onto the train he suddenly saw the sourced of his current problems sitting on a bench on the train for once not clad in a bikini but short shorts and a crop top.

She silently gestured him forwards and whispered into his ear. "By the way I forgot to say this before." She smirked. "Remember when I said that possessing mystery makes a being able to change in various ways that don't hold true with the laws of physics." She smiled wider than ever. "Like how dragons' lungs infinitely generate prana. Well when I was examining your body earlier I found something out. Want to know what it was?" As Shirou nodded her smile split her face. "Well too bad this is for not preparing me breakfast."

She pushed Shirou forward into the train just as the doors closed. His last sight of her was her retreating backside.

"Well," Shirou thought, "I know what I'm going to be doing on this trip. Besides contemplate my dwindling humanity I mean."

At that he sat down as the train started on the long trip to Misaki.

 **Author Note. Another chapter down. I'm typing this while waiting for the 24 hour period to expire so that the newest chapter doesn't show up for only a brief few minutes. This was a short chapter as it basically just announces the start of Tsukihime arc. An arc that will follow canon to the letter with Shirou being only an impartial observer and nobody will die. NOT. Those kind of scenarios have my personal loathing and while I love Tsukihime I have no desire to reenact it. I won't say more so hopefully you'll wait and see.**

 **Akasuna123 Sumire can explicitly use marble phantasm and teleport. She is an oddity amongst vampires so she fits in pretty well with the whole theme of the 27 dead apostle ancestors. More specifically the theme of having only the fact that they are not human in common. I mean seriously we have an alien a dog and a forest.**

 **I haven't thought about giving him a weapon. He still uses the bracelet to gather water but the original function of the bracelet has been modified somewhat. You'll see in future.**

 **CD123505 Sumire would have won. She is only ranked so lowly because of laziness. In the water she is almost unstoppable. Although if she finished him off herself she probably would have let him go as killing him would take too much effort. As for your second point he is unable to apply things such as "unlimited energy" as he currently has no concept of what unlimited energy is. He can apply concepts to make attacks have more power but he would have to perform the attack and then alter the concept and that currently takes too long for him to do in battle. As for skill and knowledge he does have the ability to alter himself as shown in this chapter but it is hard for him to do it consciously. To be more specific, he thinks of himself as [Shirou Inke]. That name overrides all other alterations. He could make himself stronger but it would quickly wear off as he returned to the strength [Shirou Inke] possesed. The reasons stated in this chapter as well as one other are the reasons his transformation this chapter could work.**

 **Anyway I think the 24 hours is up. Please read and review**


	6. Just lake home

Shirou fidgeted as he sat on the train. He had been analysing himself for the past hour trying to find out what the difference that Sumire had alluded to was. He eventually gave it up as a bad job and started inspecting his mystic codes. Due to Sumire hurrying him he had packed everything taking even the most useless of the many items he had either got given by Kiritsugu, bartered for from Sumire or obtained/created on his own.

On his left hand he had a ring that was the spiritual successor and vastly more improved version of his previous water generation bracelet. It was made from a rock from the moon and it built around the concept of being able to absolutely control the water in the same way that the moon could control the tides. Shirou had built it himself using the fourth magic and thus it was vastly superior to the majority of mystic codes. He grimaced as he recalled the difficulty of obtaining the actual materials. In his quest to find a rock from the moon he had ended up with a small mountain of cannabis, that Sumire found to amusing to help get rid of. Right now in the Emiya house in the garage hidden beneath a pile of junk lay a heap of marijuana that Shirou had no way of disposing of besides telling his father and he didn't want to get scolded for purchasing drugs.

The second mystic code was his boots. Initially Shirou wanted to make them able to make him run faster or fly or teleport. All of his attempts to do that failed dismally so he gave up. Sumire stingily refused to teach him how to teleport and he valued her too much as a friend to even think of stealing her technique.

"Eventually he merely reinforced the existence of the shoes to make them strong and hard so that they could stand up to the additional force of his kicks and carved specific ridges onto the soles of the shoes that with a flare of his prana would inflict explosive runes on whatever he kicked.

Lastly his final mystic code was the one he was the most proud of. It lay on his neck and looked like an ordinary chain that led beneath his shirt. In fact it was anything but normal. The necklace fully took in small amounts of mana from the atmosphere and released while binding it to a miniscule amount of od. This basically allowed him to use his [Poseidon's Eye] on land without having to cast the spell or intone the incantation. He was proud of his spells, really he was, but every time he used one of his named spells in his spars with Sumire he incurred her persistent mockery. He did not have fourth grader syndrome dammit. He fights zombies and vampires; he's allowed to have cool sounding attacks.

Well one vampire he fought and the other he repeatedly gets his ass his ass handed to him in their spars.

The last mystic codes he had included a kind of sucking sweet that turned saliva into acid, useful if he ever found a way to use it without Avalon immediately having to do heavy-duty tongue healing afterwards and a glove that would freeze the person by manipulating the water in their body, this actually briefly worked with Sumire and he managed to kick her in the face with his rune boots, when her face regenerated, about 0.3 seconds later she congratulated him sincerely before handing him another asskicking, the glove unable to stop her at all afterwards.

As he finished taking stock of his various mystic codes the train pulled into the Misaki station. He exited the train station and pumped some prana into his necklace to detect any threats to his person in the city. After about four seconds of channelling the answer made his head start to ache.

"What the hell," he thought. When he tried this in the town of Fuyuki the blank spots were usually Gilgamesh and Sumire whenever he was in. Minor but readable spots included the Matou and Tohsaka manors but he usually avoided examining them closely. He wasn't interested in stealing the secrets of their brand of magecraft.

The Tohsaka's brand of magecraft resolved around jewelcraft and the storing of prana in jewels, this was basically a type of magecraft that meant you were incredibly useless ninety-nine days out of one hundred and on the one day you could output incredible amounts of prana using incredibly expensive jewels. No Shirou could output enough prana on his own without having to laboriously save up power. Besides it would mean that he would have to keep the jewels on him all the time or risk being attacked on one of the ninety-nine days.

The Matou magecraft had initially enticed him. The concept of absorption that they specialized in seemed significantly ill-defined that there could be many interesting spells that he could steal for his own and adapt into his own magecraft foundation. This changed when he sensed the horror that was Zouken Matou. His body disgusted him to such an extent that he had immediately withdrew his senses. Too Shirou's senses he stood out as something that must be destroyed. If he were to meet him in the street he would strike him down but until then he was content to avoid him.

Misaki town was just as bad if not worse than Fuyuki. He sensed a single massive black spot and a slightly smaller one on opposite ends of the town. In addition he sensed a magus family.

Stretching his senses to the limit he picked up some minor traces of magecraft there but nothing that was too out of the ordinary for a reasonably sized town. Shirou's thoughts immediately drifted from finding Kouma Kishima to finding out what was going on in this town. He suspected that there was a vampire and judging by the dark spot it could have been an ancestor. For a moment he thought about calling Sumire but he dismissed it. Sumire was weaker on land and wouldn't be able to fight another ancestor out of her element.

Briefly the thought that he wouldn't be able to fight another ancestor surfaced in his mind but he quashed it. First there was no guarantee that it was an ancestor. Secondly he was a magician of the fourth. Thirdly if the ancestor did prove to be too much he could retreat using water and steam to mask his retreat. Lastly Gilgamesh said it was necessary and the man had never been wrong in his advice before. From everything from whether the weather would be good today or what material would have the best results in his mystic codes. Shirou had learnt many times never to argue with a clairvoyant as they had already beaten you by the time you started the argument.

Shirou's priorities had changed upon finding out this information. Originally his plans were to find Kouma Kishima and speak to him immediately. The plans were now changed, his first priority was to set up a base of operations, plant the strongest bounded field he had ever seen and then go out to explore the town.

Shirou sighed, while he normally would have to use his own house or rent out a house for the period it now looked like he would have to go to a hotel. He had never quite gotten over the hotel-related incidents when he was younger and would do his best to avoid hospitals in future. It was something that exasperated Kiritsugu as it was a profoundly illogical thing that Shirou did.

After the fifth hotel he had finally found one that didn't use gas and had precautions against both explosives and other acts of terrorism. He fortified the hotel room to the nines with his strongest boundary fields and headed out into the night. Misaki town had somewhat chill autumns but Shirou got around that by activating his circuits causing him to warm up slightly.

He enjoyed the sights of the town while keeping his eyes open for vampiric activity. While he didn't spot any vampiric activities this was mainly because his attention was captured by an event quite early in the evening that required him to return to his hotel.

As he was patrolling the park he came across the sight of a young man, only a few years older than him face down and covered in blood and vomit. Noticing that the man was still alive he gave him a cursory analysis before calling an ambulance. Or at least that's what he would have done if the results of his scan didn't ping up and show him possibly the most interesting thing he has seen in all of his years. With wide eyes he scanned the blood again and then, with a humongous grin slowly overtaking his face he grabbed the boy and dragged him back to his hospital bed.

 **Shiki**

Shiki walked through the streets. His gait was purposeful as he followed a single scent amongst thousands. He ducked into the back-alleys body melting amongst the shadow and began to move with speed faster than he could ever remember. At last his journey came to an end and he noticed a woman walking through one of the back alleys. He noted with some amusement that the woman appeared to be more nervous than usual however whether this was due to the natural creepiness of the alleys or a preys feeble instinct it wasn't clear. Without giving her time to react he jumped down in front of her and tore her to pieces. Blood coated his hands and he gulped down greedily his face steadily taking on a scarlet hue. Gulp after gulp of the lifesaving liquid he quaffed down and when he had drunk his fill he left the corpse there on the ground and headed back to-

Shiki woke up with a start. He frantically looked at the unfamiliar surroundings trying to piece together what had happened. He remembered killing someone, a girl, at this he almost threw up again and started hyperventilating. His hands started shaking and his mouth grew dry.

"Easy, easy," a voice emerged by his side. He jumped and looked to the side noticing as he did that the room he appeared to be in was a hotel. Standing next to him was a boy that looked to be about twelve or thirteen. He had red hair and brown eyes and was dressed in a casual white shirt and jeans.

"I feel like I'm getting Déjà vu for some reason," the boy remarked to himself. "Anyway," they boy continued addressing Shiki, "my name is Shirou. Now," and he leaned towards Shiki looking into his eyes through staring through the mystic eye killers which Shiki vaguely realise he woke up with. For some reason he woke up in different pajama's but with his glasses still on.

"Wait a minute," he said, "did you change…"

"Get over it," Shirou replied immediately. "You killed something non-human recently. Judging by the amount of mystery it blood radiates it was very powerful. I would like to know details."

Shiki flashed back to the memory of his attack he immediately felt the bile rise in his throat and his heart begin to pound. He was brought back to reality by the sensation of a palm to his cheek courtesy of Shirou as he glared at it.

"Please answer me," Shirou said, "and stop panicking you were quite injured when I found you, it took me quite a while to heal you. I would be quite miffed if you suddenly had a heart attack and my work was undone."

Shirou sighed, "Okay you are obviously out of your depth. Let's start with your name."

"Shiki," he said. "But who are you and what did you mean non-human." Despite his rising panic that was the thing that he latched onto. If the thing he killed was non-human was it murder. He reproached himself for that immediately bitterness welling up in his chest. Whatever it was it was still a living being and he had killed it.

"Easy there," Shirou said moving up to lay a hand on his shoulder, "what do you know of the moonlight world." After a moment of seeing Shiki's vacant expression he sighed. "Did what you kill look like a human. Yes or no?"

"Yes," Shiki said. "So it's a dead apostle of some description." Upon seeing Shiki's face he clarified, "A vampire."

"But how could somebody like you take down a vampire. No offense intended of course but from what I could tell you're not a magus. Nor are you an exorcist or any kind of other being related to the moonlight world. Vampires are not just strong and fast but inhumanly hard to put down." He paused, "Tell me do you have some form of ESP, are you a psychic?"

Shiki looked up at Shirou's inquisitive face and considered telling him about the lines he saw but every time he thought about those lines the face of the woman who he had sliced to pieces flashed through his face. He grimaced and shook his head.

Shirou appeared to take his silence as a sign that he wouldn't be receiving any more information. He exhaled and handed him a cellphone.

"Call your family or friends to pick you up. I'll be at this hotel for about a week. When you feel ready to talk you can come meet me, my room number is four hundred and thirty on the fourth floor."

"Wait," Shiki called out. "Thank you for helping me."

Shirou nodded and headed out into the night.

 **Shirou**

The night had grown colder. Shirou had after leaving the room decided to cast [Poseidon's Eye again. He noted that the larger of the two massive presences had significantly reduced in power. Despite that reduction it was still strong enough to reject his long ranged scanning abilities. He briefly debated going to check up on the presence but resolved that scared and weakened ancestors would be at their most dangerous as they are more likely to lash out without reason. "Whatever kind of mystic eyes Shiki had must have been really powerful," Shirou thought nonchalantly. He recognized the mystic eye killers and was hesitant to remove them. Even he had to be wary about a brand of power that could harm whatever that thing was. He was a bit disappointed that Shiki didn't want to come out and tell him but he would deal with it. It was his right to keep his secrets and he was hardly going to shit on the guy during such a tumultuous time in his life.

He continued down the streets and took the first steps into the alleyways. Almost nonchalantly he killed the first few dead he came across on the streets streams of water cutting them into ribbons before they could even launch an attack their bodies turning to ash as their bodies dissolved.

He had made a night out of it killing about fifteen dead until midnight. However after midnight at around two 'o clock he quickly got the feeling of being followed. He left the alleys and took a step into the parks. Needing some way to lure out the mysterious follower he sat on one of the benches in the park and stilled his breathing. After about half an hour he heard footsteps, barely distinguishable as the being in the grass approached him. However he heard no breathing or even a heartbeat. He heard a whispered "I'm sorry and then a hand plunged towards his heart.

Opening his eyes he caught the hand moving towards his chest noting as he did that the force behind it was much stronger than that of a human or even one of the dead. Looking up he gazed into the red eyes of a brown haired girl, her face a mixture of shock and anxiousness.

He stood up and examined her from head to toe causing her to flush. "A vampire," he said. "Why would a vampire apologize to me for my death?" Interested he stared into the girl's red eyes and decided to analyse her using the fourth.

Family, love, school, friends, these and more images flashed through his brain in a fraction of an instant and in that time he knew Yumizuka Satsuki better than even her parents. He both blessed and cursed his luck. While many others would fear meeting a vampire Shirou often reveled in the challenge that they would pose to him. This vampire however was far different from all the rest. She had started pulling against his grip trying to get free tugging ineffectively against the firm grip of his hands, this image more than any other solidified her as not a threat in Shirou's mind. She was so hopeless, the perfect image of a high school student that had never fought in her life and that made her situation so tragic to Shirou that it stirred his compassion.

Shirou suddenly let go of her hand and Satsuki went flying back to land on her butt. Shirou stepped forward looming over her and he noticed the sudden pang of fear in her eyes. "Do not move," he said becoming aware of another presence in the vicinity. "I'll try my best to get you back to normal, but in the meantime do not move."

He stood up while he didn't cast [Poseidons' Eye] he instead cast his senses trying to identify the ripples all around him. He swung his arms around to catch two objects that were heading for Satsuki taking note of her wide eyes as he moved in front of her. The force behind the two objects were so intense that his arms swung way back when catching them and if he wasn't constantly using [Ryuujin's Perfect Body] he had a feeling that he would have dislocated both his arms.

He immediately took note of the fact that the weapons that were thrown towards him were black keys and thus the person who attacked him was most likely with the church. Taking the black keys into his hands he fired them into Satsuki's shadow that was illuminated by the streetlights. She froze unable to move a muscle.

Shirou scanned the darkness. "You might as well come out now," he said. "Let's talk face-to-face." He paused for a moment and then a silhouette emerged from the darkness. Squinting his eyes he managed to make out blue hair and a feminine figure. He was quite pleased to see that she was wearing priest robes as that confirmed his hypothesis that she was with the church.

"Why are you defending the vampire," she said. "If she was a lover of yours or a friend give up. Her soul has already been corrupted by the apostle blood within her. She will eventually turn on you and drink your blood."

"Ciel," said Satsuki as she had her eyes fixed upon the blue haired exorcist.

"Oh," Shirou said his voice containing traces of amusement, "so you were friends and yet you're so quick to throw her under the bus." He chuckled quietly, "isn't that kind of against what the church stands for, you know love and forgiveness and peace and all that."

"Or was it that you never were a friend of hers." All pretense of humour immediately dropped from his voice. "But then I suppose you burial agency members aren't exactly the most reasonable of people." At this the Ciel started a bit. "Words aren't going to get through to you are they," Shirou said while stretching his arms, while in his mind water burst from the ground and the fluids inside his body started growing agitated.

"But then again I've never exactly been that eloquent," Shirou said and with that as a start both of them attacked.

Ciel immediately threw another two handfuls of black keys at blinding speed towards Shirou, two of them were dodged immediately and the rest were redirected by powerful beams of water drawn in by Shirou's ring and controlled by his willpower. A wide wave of water was created from Shirou's prana and Ciel jumped over it however that brief moment in the air left her open for a second to Shirou who mixed prana into the spit in his mouth and the prana infused spit drilled a hole directly through Ciel's abdomen.

Shirou immediately fired more small beams of water trying to force Ciel to move which would cause her too bleed out. His plan appeared to work as she became slower and slower before finally collapsing in a heap. He turned away to pick up Satsuki when a blade suddenly went through his chest.

"Did you think that would be enough to put down a member of the burial squad magus?" she said to the corpse that was impaled on her blade. "Why is your kind always so arrogant?"

She looked away to her former classmate who was still looking at her with shock and fear in her eyes. For a moment regret seemed to pass through her eyes. "Now it is time for you," she said her voice cold.

Unfortunately she didn't get to carry out that threat as in the very next second her head was separated from her shoulders by a needle thin wave of water that appeared in front of her. In a second her head was reattached and she had leapt back putting some distance between her and the magus she thought she had killed.

"You know for a second there I thought it would be that easy," Shirou said all smiles again. "And you're hardly one to talk," he said his wound appearing to have gone as if it had never existed. "I guess we both have our own forms of immortality. Shall we see whose is superior?"

He shrugged his shoulders, "But then why again are we fighting, despite her amazing potential you know for a fact that Satsuki here is a not even a day old fledgling. She's not the one responsible for the attacks. Why would you waste your energy fighting me, surely you would want to save your energy for the vampire who is behind this."

Ciel looked at him, "It is the duty for those of the burial squad to hunt down vampires wherever they appear. She could grow far stronger if she was to be allowed to escape." She addressed Satsuki personally. "While it is nothing personal Yumizuka I will kill you."

Shirou sighed looking down, "Good to know." He raised his head, "the fact that you would waste this energy attacking me with no hesitation when there is a dead apostle killing indicates that you believe this fight won't lead to a significant disadvantage. This indicates that your healing is based on an external factor such as a church artefact that can heal you indefinitely independent of prana and not something limited such as your own body." Shirou smiled. "Good to know I can't just wear out your regeneration Ciel. I'm going to have to try something different."

He jumped back ten paces and started chanting. Alarmed Ciel rushed forwards ignoring Satsuki for the moment. She closed the distance attempting to run Shirou through with her blade, however that plan was foiled by a pair of runes that had appeared on the grass the moment Ciel ran through it and exploded. Her legs gone Ciel fell on the floor for a moment before the regeneration process started kicking in and reversing the damage done to her legs. That moment was a moment too long as the instant that Ciel had fallen down she had been engulfed in a bubble of water that prevented her from moving.

Shirou sweated at this. This Ciel was a monster and was probably much stronger than he was. Unfortunately despite the od that he could feel pouring off her she had not used magecraft at all. All her strength would be for nought when the water that he controlled prevented her from gaining the leverage to move about and his water control wasn't a curse that could be disrupted by running your magic circuits either.

Unfortunately despite his solid reasoning why it would work he could see that reality liked proving him wrong. Ciel was slowly getting up from the restraining water her monstrously high od disrupting his prana he used to control the water. That was where the second part of the plan went through because despite what she said he was not a magus.

He was a magician.

He reached forward and touched the water planting one of his favourite concepts of all time. [Freeze]. While he did have enough control to freeze the water without resorting to his magic, magecraft for this ability proved insufficient due to three advantages magic had. Firstly it could not be disrupted by Ciel's od at all as magic was the highest class of mystery and could only be influenced by a magician. Secondly it was simpler with magecraft he had to remember exactly how his freezing magecraft worked and that always took him some time in the midst of battle. Lastly and most importantly it was instant. Through magecraft he could cool objects down or force water to transition into ice it usually took a between five seconds and one minute for the object to be frozen totally. Sumire was very happy to show him repeatedly how the amount of mystery she possessed gave her a resistance to magic that allowed her to laugh through his attempts to freeze her.

By applying the concept freeze the object is instantaneously frozen. Furthermore the object will resist all attempts to become unfrozen unless heavy force or incredible heat is used as the concept persists and it would take a while for the concept to wear off as Akasha changes. Shirou had experimented by leaving ice cream in the sun and he found that it took the ice cream three days to melt.

The result of this was a frozen priest in a puddle of water. Shirou admired his handiwork, but he wasn't fooled. This kind of set-up probably wouldn't last an hour judging by the power of the burial squad member. He looked over to Satsuki who was either paralyzed by fear or paralyzed by the black keys and came to an idea. He put his hands on the black keys and attempted to lift them. To his surprise despite his strength they didn't budge. He examined them and after a brief scan through them he changed ownership from [Ciel] to [Shirou]. Satisfied he lifted them up and stabbed them into the shadow caused by the lamplight.

Looking down to Satsuki who had started shivering he lifted her up in his arms and headed back to the hotel.

 **Author note: So another chapter. I really like the character of Ciel she is one of the few characters in the nasuvers said to be able to take on a servant. She actually wasn't fighting at her best for a few reasons. She underestimated Shirou (he only is 13 now) she didn't expect him to be so tough. She actually wasn't so enthusiastic about killing Satsuki. Only when Shirou showed himself as a competent magus was she willing to go in for the kill. Luckily Avalon had other things to say.**

 **Secondly I found this hard to show but Shirou is not only doing this for compassionate reasons. They exist but he also takes pride and joy in his magecraft and magic. Attempting to turn Satsuki human for him would be equivalent to a weekends worth of parties/ a whole movie marathon/ binge watching the newest season of anime.**

 **Guest and Ravenext While he will certainly meet at least one of them I haven't planned any particulars nor would I disclose it ahead of time. :)**

 **Dovahzul Nasuverse likes to keep all its universes separate. Do you know Aoko Aokazi live in the Kumoji manor which was in Misaki town the exact same place as the Tohno manor. Congrats for being the first to call me out on it. I'm shocked how nobody has said Gilgamesh was out of character.**

 **The Rupture Altouge would kill him for what he tangentially did to Svelten. They actually don't know where he is, just that he went missing. Plus Altrouge =Primate Murder=Everyone dies**

 **Tjg Shirou actually does a lot of work on his magecraft and I usually only show it like flashbacks. However there are two semi-self imposed limitations. One he doesn't alter people without their permission. That leads to a route he really doesn't want to go down. Two in chapter 5 Gilgamesh advised him to avoid using his analysis skill on people. Imagine just looking at somebody and seeing all their flaws laid bare, not a nice thing.**

 **Rangle I know but I enjoy replying to reviews. In additon I only reply to those who ask or imply a question. If it ever gets too much I'll just reply to the ones I want.**

 **Thank you for reading please read an review. I was thinking of doing a Christmas omake but to be honest I can't think of anything funny.**


	7. Wetting ready for the big bottle

**Akiha**

Akiha was delicately sipping her tea as she sat facing the boy opposite her. The boy, who looked no older then thirteen was calmly smiling back at her. He had quite calmly knocked on her door at about six in the morning and after introducing himself as Shirou Inke had requested to meet with Kouma Kishima. When Kohaku had stated that there was no Kouma Kishima living here he had requested his current location. This led to the current problem she was facing.

"Say that again will you," Shirou said. "I don't think my ears heard you correctly the first time."

"I'm afraid to say ." Akiha repeated her voice patient, "but I have no idea of the whereabouts of ."

"You're a mixed blood," Shirou said with his usual lack of tact. Upon seeing Akiha's look he quickly corrected himself. "I'm not insulting you or criticizing you just laying the facts bare. I can sense the girl," at this he gestured to Kohaku standing besides Akiha, "is something interesting as well. You know at first I mistook this gathering for a family of Magi but looking closely it's just too different." He shook his head his smile growing wider, "I've seen so many interesting people in this town and I've only been here for one day, truly I was right to skip school for this."

Looking back at Akiha's impassive face he sighed. "So I guess my point is this man Kouma Kishima, who was a member of a branch family to yours, who has been described to me as a demon in human form by a person who I know could singlehandedly crush this town if she ever got serious, left for some reason and you as the head of the family responsible in some part for his actions didn't even get a damn forwarding address."

Akiha felt her neck grow warm while outwardly she still maintained the look of an impassive head of the family. During the speech she had grown more and more embarrassed to be lectured by an outsider to the family and on top of that one that was even younger than her. While her pride wouldn't let her concede the point she took a note to in future think take a more critical stance on her actions.

"That's correct," she said.

"Okay," Shirou said standing up abruptly, "but before I go I must-," Shirou stopped the reason being that Akiha's brother had just entered the room followed closely by Hisui.

As Akiha turned towards Shiki she was surprised to see her brother look at Shirou with recognition.

"Shiki," Shirou said, the fact that he knew her brother startling Akiha slightly, "my word is it a small world, fancy seeing you here."

"Shirou," Shiki said, and his voice was enough to raise Akiha's spirits and sooth her worries that he was not okay after yesterday. "What are you doing here? Did you come to meet with me?

Akiha started shooting Shirou a look trying to convey not to tell her brother about the fact that they were mixed-bloods. If she had paid more attention to Shiki at that moment she would have noticed him shooting Shirou similar looks. "How do you know my brother?" Akiha asked of Shirou. "You said that you had only been in Misaki for one day."

"He helped me yesterday," Shiki supplied. "He was the one to take me to recover in the hotel bed."

Shirou's smiled widened as he took in Akiha's glare. "And how are you Shiki you're looking a lot better then you were doing yesterday." He chuckled, "If I knew you were a Tohno I would have stayed to meet the person picking you up." He shrugged his shoulders. "Oh well, opportunity lost, opportunity gained. The reason I came here today was to meet a man called Kouma Kishima. Unfortunately he moved out not long ago and left no forwarding address."

Shiki looked guilty for a moment and rubbed his head. "Thank you for what you did last night I felt much better this morning."

"You're talking about me healing you, you don't have to beat around the bush to hide the fact that I'm a magus," Shirou said. Akiha gave him a sharp look to prevent him from dropping any hints. "Who's going to believe you anyway?" Shirou stood up. "I must head out now I have things to do but first a warning," at this he fashioned the entire room with a stern look. "Stay inside at night, there's a vampire roaming the streets and you could become its next victim." He turned towards Shiki. "In fact a young girl your age was attacked last night."

"What!" Shiki exclaimed.

"Yeah," Shirou said dismissively. "It was a girl named Satsuki. Don't worry," he said ignoring Shiki's look of shock. "She'll be fine, I can heal it will just take a lot longer than the injuries that you accrued."

Shirou turned towards Kohaku. "Thank you for the tea, it was delicious."

"You're welcome," Kohaku replied. "But it was my sister that made it."

"I must get the recipe sometime," Shirou directed to Hisui, "but I must really get going."

"Wait," Akiha said. As Shirou turned towards her she said, "Thank you for saving my brother." The young magus merely nodded and strode out of the room.

Akiha sighed under her breath relieved; if the conversation continued like that she would have to reveal things to Shiki she really didn't want to. She lifted her cup and froze. Underneath the cup lay a piece of paper with her name on. The ink looked wet as if it had just been applied and the writing was a bit messy as if the author of the note had little prior experience writing.

She picked up the note ignoring the curious gaze of her brother and started to read the note her face going white as she read the few lines contained in. It simply read.

"Your bloodlust is slipping. Control it. I don't really want to have to take down a demon in addition to the vampire.

The note fell from her nerveless fingers and for the first time in a long while Akiha felt very very scared.

 **Shirou**

Shirou walked out of the Tohno manor not bothering to be shown out by the maids. He didn't enjoy doing that to the poor girl but even he could detect the slipping control that she displayed. This would lead to the deadly drift towards inversion impulse that would leave them a mindless being of destruction.

He manipulated the ink from the fountain pen in the pocket of his pants to imprint the words directly on the note and slipped it under her cup when she was distracted by her brother entering the room. Shirou could easily tell that Shiki wasn't her brother in blood but who was he to judge by that source of reasoning. He was adopted and he chose his name from a third source. More than once he considered how the being would react to his taking of the name.

He jerked his thoughts back on track. Really if he hadn't taken charge over Satsuki he would have probably offered his services to Akiha in curing her of the influence of her demon blood. He didn't even dare to use Avalon on her as it might not work on something so inherent to her being and an out of control demon with Avalon is not something he wanted to bother with. Unfortunately his time was limited and he would have enough on his hands in future dealing with the vampire. He took a sip from the water bottle by his side infusing prana into the water and watching it travel down his throat and into the cells in his body.

Shirou's eyes widened. "The vampire," he thought. "I forgot to warn Shiki the vampire he killed was still alive." Shirou felt like shit. "Damn I really don't want to go back there it will ruin my cool exit. Plus I really need to meet up with Satsuki and start hunting down the other vampire."

Shirou took a deep breath. "I really need to get a familiar," he thought. "Something that can keep track of all this crap while I do my research." He once again put his hand on his necklace while focusing his prana into it and casting [Poseidon's Eye]. The largest source of power was quite far away and still seemed to be surrounded by buildings. The source that he identified as the exorcist last night appeared to be in the local municipal high school. He identified the Tohno residence behind him as the source of a few signatures. There were only three of those signatures there at the present time however.

He looked for the weakened signature and his eyes widened in shock. "Fuck every single deity," he took off as the signal indicated that it was moving around in daylight.

He ducked past the crowds of students heading for school and headed down the street moving at the peak human condition. Ignoring the strange looks of those who he passed by he quickly found himself in more empty streets and he cast [Poseidon's Eye] again he noticed the source was in a nearby alleyway as well as…Shiki. "What had that kid gotten into himself now?"

Walking slowly towards the mouth of the alleyway careful not to make a sound he heard a conversation going on.

"Asking if you're sorry for killing me, I'm thinking of forgiving you if you are you see, besides I get the feeling that you're a pretty poor liar for a human," a female voice rang out.

Shirou's eyebrows rose significantly. That, that was not what he was expecting to hear. The lady whoever she was seemed very reasonable for a dead apostle ancestor. Shirou entertained the thought that she might be a powerful human magus. His musing was cut off by a surprised question and the woman clarifying that she would be fine with an apology.

Definitely not an ancestor then. Sumire had told him that the two other female ancestors were Rita-Rozay a friend of hers, who was normally quite a bitch occasionally and Altrouge Brunestud who never went anywhere without her white dog, a being that Shirou was most certain he would have sensed.

"Hey you have to give an answer when people ask you seriously, you know. Come on hurry up and answer." Once again Shirou was struck by how childish she sounded.

When Shiki stated that he was sorry for killing her and the lady replied that he wasn't a bad person. Shirou couldn't help it any longer he let out a low chuckle.

"Who's there," sounded out the female voice from the alley. "Show yourself."

Shirou got himself under control and the stepped into the alley noting that Shiki was lying against the wall and that the woman who stood between them had blond hair and red eyes. "So she must be a vampire then. I've confirmed she also has advanced senses. Rita's hair is red according to Sumire, so my best guess is…"

"Altrouge Brunestud," Shirou said inquiring as to whether his guess on the identity of the being before him was correct.

"Ehhhh," she replied. "No I'm Arcueid," at this she looked stern. "Don't mix me up with her."

At this Shirou blanked. "Arcueid Brunestud," he repeated. "This boy randomly attacked Arcueid Brunestud." Shirou began to snicker, then chuckle then it evolved into full-blown laughter.

"Don't laugh at me," the vampire said, and Shirou was instantly on guard again. "It really hurt," she stomped her foot.

"I wasn't really laughing at you," Shirou defended himself. "It's kind of like if some random muggers attacked Zelretch. I was laughing at Shiki's incredibly poor luck."

At this the now identified true ancestor grew contemplative. "I suppose that would be kind of funny," she said. "But it's not funny when it hurts," she said using childish logic. "He cut me into seventeen pieces. I had to spend the whole night recreating my body, the pain was huge and I lost so much energy."

"So how were you planning to get recompense," Shirou questioned. "It's not normally in the nature of vampires dead apostle or true to be merciful.

"I'm going to use him as my shield," Arcueid replied mentioning something horrible in her chipper voice. "That way I can recover my energy and hunt down the vampires in the town."

Shirou looked at Shiki again. Even though he was older than him the guy looked overwhelmed. As he thought about it he realised that he didn't want that to happen. Whatever power the kid displayed, and he would get an answer soon enough the boy's feelings be damned, his body revealed that he had the physical power of a normal human. No mystic eyes in the world will help you if your opponent can kill you faster than you can look at him. He would most likely die if he had to face the vampire. In addition his death might be the catalyst to tip his sister over the edge. Shirou shivered, he hadn't scanned Akiha but he had a feeling that her inversion would be particularly brutal.

In addition the opportunity to observe the power of the White Princess was too great to simply be passed over. Shirou sighed dramatically.

"Shiki go to school." Shirou said. "Arcueid I'll help you with recover and protect you while that's going on."

Arcueid opened her mouth as if to argue but Shirou cut her off. "He's not a part of the moonlight world," he started. "While he does have some neat eyes," Shirou continued ignoring Shiki's shock, "that won't protect him against whatever the hell you're hunting."

Shirou placed his hands in his pockets. "I possess an artefact that should be able to heal you and my skills as a magus would be enough to protect against the dead and see off most dead apostles." At seeing Arcueid's belligerent look Shirou said. "Look the only options are either I defend you from whichever forces you are trying to hunt down that may decide to jump on you in a moment of weakness or you face me down and lose everything."

Arcueids eyes flashed gold and Shirou sighed, "Really mystic eyes of enchantment, those are like the toy that comes with the cereal box that is being a true ancestor. Nobody even moderately powerful would ever have a problem with those."

Arcueid immaturely crossed her arms. "No I want him to make it up to me for stabbing me. If you do it then it ruins the whole point."

"So ask him to take you to a movie later, right now I don't want him anywhere near a vampire and quite frankly I don't see why you would want to be protected by somebody who almost killed you," Shirou said rapidly losing his temper.

He suddenly paused as Shiki turned to look at something behind his back. A black bird sat across the street examining the feuding pair.

"Oh no," Arcueid said her demeanour changing to become something incomparable to the childish cheerful vampire that was arguing with Shirou just a moment ago. "He found us."

"Not a friend of yours I'm guessing," Shirou replied, "does this bird's master have a name."

"Nrvnqsr Chaos," Arcueid replied, "the tenth Dead Apostle Ancestor."

"Fuck," Shirou replied, "correct me if I'm wrong that's the one that wanders around destroying shit with his familiars." He raised his hand and a beam of water shot out of his palm lightning fast destroying the black crow. He noted that the remnants of the crow appeared to dissolve and flow away.

A black dog appeared in the alleyway and in an instant a sharp lance of water pierced his head causing instant death. Again Shirou noted that the remains appeared to drift off. He quickly stepped forward and grabbed a handful of the stuff. Taking the water bottle strapped to his belt and emptying it out he ignored the attempts of the black goo to escape and instead scooped it into the bottle.

"Shiki forget school," Shirou said. "Go home and tell Akiha that an ancestor is in town." He turned towards the True Ancestor. "Arcueid we are going to go to my hotel room and get you healed up. Then we're going to come up with a plan to fight this guy who's clearly gunning for you. What are you waiting for move," Shirou yelled.

At this he took off moving towards his hotel room at high speed. Arcueid hesitated for a moment before taking off after him easily matching his speed.

"Okay Arcueid," Shirou begun. "I have a fledgling Dead Apostle in my hotel room that managed to skip the dead and ghoul stage and became a full-fledged vampire after only one day."

"Wow," said Arcueid, "she must have very high magic potential," she narrowed her eyes suspiciously, "but what are you doing with her."

"Trying to turn her back to human," Shirou admitted. "I figure all the other magus are all trying to turn people into vampires, so I might as well try the other way around," he joked.

Arcueid just stare at him for a few seconds.

"Anyway," Shirou continued, "I was hoping you would just ignore her presence." He rubbed his head. "I haven't had time to begin my experiment so right now she is restrained by only a small bounded field around her."

"That's pretty impressive magecraft for one so young." Arcueid scrutinized the magician. "Who exactly are you."

"I'm Shirou Inke," Shirou replied, "and I would be glad to answer your questions once we are inside the damn hotel."

They entered the lobby and quickly took the elevator to the fourth floor where Shirou's room resided. Entering both took in the sight of the young vampire Satsuki watching what appeared to be a magical girls show while relaxing on the bed unaware of their entrance. Shirou took note that the bounded field that he had placed to restrain Satsuki had been drained.

"Hello again Satsuki," Shirou said.

"Eep," said Satsuki and she nearly fell off the bed. "I wasn't, I mean the restraints faded, I didn't mean to." She once again looked panic and Shirou sighed for what felt like the tenth time today. He regretted being so firm with Satsuki initially but often when he got into serious situations he got hyperfocused and he was told he could be quite scary.

"It doesn't matter Satsuki," he smiled which did little to dissipate the poor girl's nervous energy. "This is Arcueid. She's healing up here and then we're going to take on an evil vampire."

Shirou suddenly hit his fist into the palm of his hand. "Now that I think about it this is no place for you." I'm sorry but I'm going to have to wait a little longer before I get started on a cure. I have already hypnotized your parents. They believe you have fallen sick and been transferred to Tokyo to undergo treatment. They also believe there is a very good chance of your survival and so do I. For the time being I cannot have you here and thus I have to have you take refuge with a friend of mine."

Shirou suddenly looked thoughtful. "Arcueid what's your opinion on the ancestors."

Arcueid looked confused for a moment, "Shirou it's my job to hunt and kill dead apostles. I don't have a very good relationship with them."

"Not even your biggest fan Merem Solomon," Shirou replied.

"How do you know about that?" Arcueid asked her eyes once again narrowed. "That's not exactly something that is broadcasted around the world."

"I have a friend who's a Dead Apostle Ancestor," Shirou replied to Arcueid's question. "She's the only person who I know at the moment who can take in Satsuki and prevent her from rampaging."

Ignoring Satsuki's denials that she would ever rampage, Arcueid adopted a thinking pose.

"Rita Rozay-en," Arcueid said, "that's who it is."

"No, it's Sumire," Shirou shut her down instantly. "In fact can you do me a favour, just stand over there and look scary."

At this Shirou pulled out a phone and had a mumbled conversation into it. "Okay," he said when he had finished. "She should be here in a few seconds."

At that very moment the aforementioned Sumire appeared in the room wearing her bikini and promptly saw Arcueid who was acting intimidating with a glare that honestly made Shirou feel a bit uncomfortable. She promptly tripped over her own two feet, fell backwards and dropped her liquor.

Shirou's subsequently burst out laughing and a moment later when Sumire realized she had been pranked she joined him in laughing up a storm.

After they calmed down Shirou then asked a serious question. "Sumire can you tell me everything you know about Nrvnqsr Chaos?"

Sumire sucked in air through her teeth, "Dammit Shirou I didn't want you to fight him. Nrvnqsr's a monster. Only the fact that he operates on a relatively small scale and his goals are incredibly long term puts him at number ten."

Sumire gritted her teeth looking frustrated. "Okay, I'll tell you what I know. He's a composite being. His body is made out of a huge number of familiars. There is a reason why the church calls him triple six you know. He's almost invulnerable, I don't know how you could beat him; if I was fighting him underwater I would drag him down to the depths and bury him there. Water and sunlight will serve to weaken him. But his body appears to be some kind of reality marble like Einnashe. You may have to absolutely destroy him to keep him from coming back. The only other weakness I can think of is that he would require a large amount of energy to sustain his existence."

Sumire shrugged her shoulders, "besides that I've got nothing. Was there anything else you wanted me to do before you embark on this foolish quest which I will not waste breath in dissuading you from."

"Yes actually," Shirou replied actually wincing from her words, which contained a truth that he couldn't deny. "Meet Satsuki she is a one day old vampire. I was going to try to turn her human again but then this shit dropped into my lap. I would be very appreciative if you could take her off my hands for the moment."

"Hello," Satsuki said nervously unknowingly triggering Sumire's big sister tendencies.

"Oh she's so cute," said Sumire rushing forward grasping her hands as usual ignoring the boundaries of proprietary. "From now on you're going to call me nee-san," she said. "I'll gladly take her off your hands for now. But Shirou," Sastsuki said while looking at him with utter seriousness. "You need to come and take her back. Put this upstart in the ground and then retrieve her. I don't want to lose a little brother." She grabbed hold of Satsuki and in an instant they were gone.

"She's quite lively," Arcueid said. "I don't think I would ever have to hunt her down. She doesn't hunt humans does she?"

"Nope," Shirou replied idly pondering Sumire's words. "She's on a strict seafood diet."

"I wonder if I should start a seafood diet," Arcueid said. "But Shirou do you have a plan to take him down, I don't think that at my full power I would be able to win and I'm weaker now."

"Oh I forgot," Shirou said smacking his forehead. He reached down to his chest and started to pull out something. Arcueid's eyes went wide as she beheld the object in front of her. It appeared to be a scabbard but nobody could ever confuse it with an ordinary scabbard. It glowed golden and produced an aura of safety, defence and tranquillity. Shirou pulled the scabbard and pushed it forward into Arcueid's chest.

"What?" Arcueid began and ended the sentence no more needed being said.

"The scabbard of King Arthur and now mine. Complete healing and limited immortality for whoever holds it. Rest now and let it go to work I have to go make preparations.

"You're not an ordinary magus are you," Arcueid called out to him as he reached the door.

"No, I'm not, and to answer your earlier question. Yes I do have a plan to destroy him. If all goes well tomorrow will be the last day he has upon this earth." Shirou exited the room grabbing a bottle as he went out.

 **Author Note. Wow a lot of fics I like updated today. Must be Christmas. Next chapter is the big showdown with Nrvnqsr Chaos and there are no mystic eyes of death perception to help out. Shirou punted Shiki to the far side of the moon where absolutely nothing bad will happen and everything will go fine. This chapter wasn't my favorite as it came close to canon a bit but I suppose this much is unavoidable.**

 **Darkjaden This got me I generally wasn't sure. But after much rereading of the wiki and discussion forums I came to this conclusion. Drawing Caliburn stops growth. The possession of Avalon stops aging. Shirou will continue to grow at normal rate so far.**

 **The Rupture A fan of From Fake Dreams I see. I don't believe that Altrouge was ever mentioned as the person who gave out the rose prophecy only that it was a female. For all we know maybe Sumire was just to lazy to issue it as usual :). Joking aside Shirou is still hidden. This has caused the rose prophecy to not trigger. None of the ancestors yet know Svelten's dead.**

 **TJG New magicians according to the wiki are often killed by a red shadow. To become a magician in my interpretation three things are needed. A way to Akasha, a way back and a way to hide. Shirou is hidden as a gift by the being that he met in Akasha. It is wearing off.**

 **Sorry but I cannot confirm or deny that is the way the story is going.**

 **Rangle He will likely not advertise it.**


	8. Plans set in ocean

**Shirou**

Shirou stood looking down at the blond vampire snoozing below him on the bed. He took another sip from his mug of coffee his umpteenth for the day. While he was well aware it wasn't good for him he had barely had an hour of sleep since he first arrived in Misaki town yesterday afternoon. When this was over he resolved to take off an entire day to sleep and recover before he got to anti-vampirising. The preparations for the attack by Nrvnqsr Chaos had been ready for half-an-hour and no twinge had yet come from the basic detection bounded field that he had set up to encompass the hotel. Shirou was greatly surprised by this.

Pieces of Chaos, a term he had adopted upon further analysing the black goo he had obtained from the hound familiar, could not automatically communicate with each other yet they would act towards a common goal. This is the only reason he decided to bring a piece of the goo into the hotel with him knowing that it would not be able to lead Nrvnqsr back to him. It was now midnight and Nrvnqsr had not found them showing a surprising amount of incompetence for a Dead Apostle Ancestor. Shirou sighed and raised his arm gathering water in his ungloved hand and throwing it at the sleeping True Ancestor.

When the water hit her she immediately jumped out of the bed and onto the floor looking around the room frantically reminding Shirou of a large cat in that moment. Her eyes fixed on Shirou and she huffed standing up and crossing her arms and glaring at him.

Shirou cut her off before she could say anything. "How do you feel," he inquired referring to her state of body and not the wetness he had just inflicted on her.

She stopped glaring immediately and began to examine her body. Shirou kept his thoughts professional as she ran her hands over her wet clothes and performed a few stretching exercises pushing her mobility. Eventually she concluded her inspection and turned back to Shirou her mouth slightly agape and a confused look in her eyes.

"I feel fine," she said. "Wow that thing is powerful."

Seeing the contemplative look in her eyes Shirou quickly shot her down. "I need it back," he said. Seeing Arcueids reluctance he continued, "it only will work in my proximity and I can shut it mostly off if I need to, I need it back."

Arcueid huffed but came forward allowing Shirou to withdraw the scabbard from her chest and implant it in his own. Shirou sighed as the artefact sunk into his chest giving him relief from the side effects of the countless coffees he had imbibed. Minor pains that he had accumulated in the fifteen hours of preparations he had performed while Arcueid was asleep disappeared. Taking inventory of his current state he realised that the only limiting factor was mental fatigue, something that Avalon wasn't great at and he currently had no way to work around. He put it on the list before rebuking himself and tearing the list down. Fuck the list; he has to fight a goddamned Ancestor in a bit. He can deal with that later.

"Are you ready," Arcueid said examining Shirou. "You look tired, did you manage to get all your preparations done."

"Yeah," Shirou replied. "It's twelve o'clock now we'll be fine." He looked at Arcueid, "I'll explain the plan now. Just hope trump cards are less in quantity and quality then my own."

 **Nrvnqsr**

He stalked through the night starving. Inside him hundreds of slavering beasts roared and gnashed their teeth wanting to leap up and devour the meat that surrounded them. He had already devoured two humans on his way to search for the True Ancestor but it wasn't enough. The chaos within him roiled at the sight of one of his numerous black birds returning to him. His familiars returning to him could only mean that the True Ancestor had been tracked down. The bird returned to his flesh and he immediately knew the location of the True Ancestor. She was up in the hotel on the fourth floor with the water magus that had "slain" two of his familiars. He appeared to be a high quality magus and Nrvnqsr basically started to salivate at the idea of acquiring his knowledge. Taking off towards the hotel mouth slightly drooling at the impending slaughter he barely took note of the sky start to imperceptibly lighten.

He headed through the twilight streets the cold doing nothing to his phantasmal body. The hotel loomed up ahead and he stepped into the lobby allowing the chaos that composed his body to flow out all over the lobby in its multitude of forms. Packs of roving dogs, massive tigers and leopards stormed through the lobby attacking unmoving people and devouring them. Nrvnqsr ignored the chaos around him instead heading directly to the elevator. Pressing the fourth button he sat back ignoring the elevator music as he waited for the lift to rise.

That never happened as an instant later he detected a wave of prana leading to the feeling of a spell triggering. The elevator and lobby briefly glowed with a mass of runes. Flickering the runes exploded obliterating the entire lobby and the whole of the entrance. The explosion stopped at the doors prevented from continuing forth by runes that glowed and then faded as the heat and pressure began to fade leaving a puddle of goo on the floor.

 **Shirou**

He descended down the stairs with Arcueid, noting as he did that the vampire seemed to be somewhat anticipatory. She clenched and unclenched her newly glove covered hands. The new mystic code Shirou created for her sit snugly upon her slender fingers and he hoped that it was worth the time he invested in creating it, almost five hours of his fifteen hour prep time. Hopefully it would be worth the effort.

He took note that the first part of the plan had gone off without a hitch as the black goo lay all over the floor destroyed by the many explosive runes carved onto the lobby. Shirou had merely walked all over the lobby and placed his shoes on the wall using the mystic code to easily set up the multitudes of runes where they easily drew in the ambient mana only to explode when Shirou later flared his prana. Still that was only the first part of the plan, the explosive runes not even amounting to an appetiser compared to the later stage of the plan. As the goo coalesced and reformed into the image of a gray haired tall man wearing a trenchcoat Shirou prepared to finish serving the courses.

"Nvrrqsrn Chaos," Shirou said deliberately fucking up his name in the hopes that it may provoke him. "I'm Sorry were you looking for me; if you were I would have prepared a less warm welcome."

Nrvnqsr Chaos didn't immediately answer instead he merely examined Shirou. Before a trio of hounds leapt from his body and converged on the young magician. Shirou didn't fire a blast of pressurized water instead the blood on the floor flowed up and enveloped the three dogs. Nrvnqsr Chaos merely looked at both Shirou and the dogs as he struggled to break free. Eventually after about thirty seconds of struggling the dogs' movements finally grew still and after a further twenty seconds they broke down and dissolved in the fluid.

"Poison," said Nrvqsr Chaos, and when he looked up at Shirou there was a dangerous look in his eyes. "All of the people in this room were poisoned and when you destroyed the room the poison consumed by my beasts drew back into me." His body shuddered briefly and then almost instantaneously returned back to normal. "No conventional poison would harm me, whatever poison this is it doesn't attack my beasts but draws out energy. I see," he said his eyes actually widening; "you don't intend to destroy me or drive me off but to starve me to death. There are no people in this hotel are there. The bodies that I attacked before, I didn't notice it, cooked meat." He actually threw his head back and laughed sadistically. "With a mind like that you must have so much knowledge. Let me take it from you." And then he exploded.

Beast emerged flying out of the vampire thick and fast. A magnificent stag ahead of the heard rushed forward to gore Shirou upon its antlers. But the beast was blocked by Arcueid who stepped in front of him protectively with a single swipe the beast was cut in half and then another part of Shirou's plan kicked in. The gloves that Arcueid was now adorned in were his latest mystic code. After he had cleared out the hotel using a frankly disturbing amount of tactical hypnosis he had sat down and attempted to make something that could absorb energy. He was fairly certain he could not destroy Nrvnqsr without resorting to using his magic on him, which was still a line he tried his utmost not to cross every day. So he settled on an alternate plan, to wear him down. While Nrvnqsr Chaos required an utmost amount of destructive power to destroy the maintenance that must be enacted by both being a thousand year old apostle and constantly using his reality marble, albeit internally, must be intense. Since Shirou didn't hear of any massacres he decided on his current plan. To drain Nrvnqsr of all the energy he accumulated and then deal with him.

The problem he came up with was what constitutes energy and in what manner was it stored. While humans stored energy in the form of glycerine and triglyceride it was significantly harder to determine in what way Nrvnqsr stored his energy. Even his examination of the Piece of Chaos with the fourth didn't reveal the method in a way that Shirou could understand it. So Shirou went with the time tested method of observation and analysis. By careful use of the fourth he was able to determine that cooling the Piece caused it to burn energy to remain at the same temperature.

Thus the liquid and the gloves were born. The gloves were created by heavy abuse of the fourth and they converted kinetic energy to charge the gloves and rapidly cool anything cut. The liquid was a special substance that spread throughout the body and through an endothermic reaction rapidly cooled and would chill the insides and kill a normal person. Unfortunately Nrvnqsr Chaos proved not to be in anyway an ordinary person as more and more beasts materialized from his body.

Arcueid was like a whirlwind; every single punch of hers froze and shattered another of the myriad creatures despite the hordes racing towards Shirou to devour him not a single one got through. Every punch that was thrown had three more following instantly behind it. Shirou had vaguely known this but Arcueid was by far the most physically powerful being he had ever encountered. She moved magnificently as speeds so fast he could barely track her with his eyes.

Not that he was doing this at this time. The remnants of the fluid were drawn towards his ring and he flung them at the body of Nrvnqsr Chaos. While a lot of them were avoided by the man splashes of water hit and started to freeze his frame. Those parts were ejected from the body fell on the floor and started to dissolve. Suddenly from the many beasts that sprang from the walking zoo a unicorn arose. The beast ignored Shirou and charged Arcueid moving at a speed far superior to the other creatures that surrounded her. Arcueid caught the beast by the horn and punched it twice demolishing the head. But in that brief time that she was momentarily occupied her feet were caught by the wolves and more and animals kept piling on trying to restrain her.

When this was going on Shirou had his own problems the amount of animals that now came for him that Arcueid was temporarily restrained was overwhelming. They barrelled through the liquid frozen limbs carting them forward and onwards towards the young magician. A tiger had managed to barrel through the water only being partly frozen. It opened its mouth to devour Shirou and was promptly kicked in the face and had its head blown off. A couple of dogs tried to flank him but they were each killed with a single swift blow. Leaping back Shirou sent a massive wave of water sending a huge amount of his prana into the spell sweeping all the current animals off their feet and away.

Catching his breath for a moment he noticed that Arcueid was still restrained but she was fighting against her restraints. More and more creatures ran into the muddy goop but the inhuman strength of Arcueid allowed her to keep punching causing bits of the mud to freeze.

Sighing seeing that Arcueid was currently unoccupied Shirou sighed and activated another of his trump cards. Channelling his prana once again he let out a wave of it. Runes flickered on the roof Shirou took brief satisfaction of seeing the look of surprise on Chaos' face as the entire first floor collapsed dropping not only cement and tiles but also about two hundred thousand gallons of ice-cold water onto the lobby floor. Arcueid would barely feel the impact of the cement preoccupied with punching the black goo and Nrvnqsr would reform but Shirou had to control the water to protect him from the falling debris.

The lobby was instantly underwater and it was only the strength of the durability seals that prevented the glass doors cracking open and making this a street fight. Nrvnqsr recovered relatively easy and the water was instantly filled with sharks. They were all massive and all appeared to be man-eaters they rushed towards Shirou with the intent of chomping him in two.

At this stage almost any other magus on earth would have been destroyed. Unfortunately Shirou was a magician who had not only mastered water spells of the highest order but had regularly trained in underwater combat against somebody far stronger than the sharks. Unlike years ago when he fought sharks using his imperfect [Ryuujin's Perfect Body] now his blows did not only stun the sharks. Every single one of his blows hit with such force that shockwaves rang throughout the water and the water around his fists boiled.

Within twenty seconds all of the sharks were obliterated. Unfortunately as he hadn't killed them by freezing about sixty percent of the energy was recovered as the black goo retreated back towards the ancestor who now only appeared to be only half of his body with his entire left side missing. Shirou he wasn't worried about Arcueid, as he had already had a glimpse of how tough she could be, he found himself flagging. High level battles like this pose as much mental as physical strain and his bad choice of not getting sleep was catching up to him despite Avalon healing him of some of the physiological effects.

Determining to finish this quickly he scanned Nrvnqsr chaos and decided his energy reserves were low enough to initiate the final phase of his plan. He immediately channelled half of his maximum prana into his new spell. "[Skadi's coolerbox]," he shouted in his mind, having chosen the name on the spot.

From his body another wave of prana exploded like it did in his [Neptune's Eye] spell. However this was much, much more than the miniscule amount required for the scouting spell. Instantly using his magic in combination with the prana he froze everything the water, the Dead Apostle even Arcueid who broke free and continued beating the shit out of the Black Goo that surrounded her, now mostly disappeared.

Shirou rose out of the ice that was still infused with his prana. While he would have liked to have said he made a cool entrance the truth was that he was panting and wheezing and not for lack of oxygen either.

His prana was at about ten percent and he had to forcibly stop Avalon from healing the burns on his hands from his punches against the sharks earlier. Sitting down on the ice with his legs and arms shaking from exhaustion he watched as Nrvnqsr chaos tore his way up through the ice.

Nrvnqsr looked like he felt. The entire right side of his body had almost disappeared leaving only a thin skeleton of a leg to keep him balanced.

"Impressive," the Dead Apostle Ancestor said. "You have reduced me to barely a sliver of my energy but you no longer have the ability to stop me. I could kill you here but I must regain my energy and I don't believe in sticking around to face the True Ancestor." He turned his back. "Farewell…"

"Nrvnqsr Chaos, Fabro Rowan. I challenge you to a duel."

The Dead Apostle froze. He turned back to see the boy standing his legs quaking but glaring at him defiantly. At his feet lay four runes Algiz, Nauthis, Ansuz and Ignuz.

"You," the Dead Apostle started.

"Ath nGabla, a spell used by the knights of the red branch this has now become a place of no retreat," Shirou said his eyes determined as he glared at the composite being. "You have no more energy, soon the sun will rise and the True Ancestor will come and finish you off." He raised his arms wide. "Come at me Fabro Rowan and meet your doom."

"You, you, what the hell are you," Rowan said losing his composure. "If the only way to leave is through you then so be it. I'll tear you to pieces; I'll rend your flesh and devour you thoroughly. Become a part of me." As he said this he morphed into a white man shaped beast that towered over even Rowan's previous size. It bulged with muscles and red eyes sat sunken inside sockets and white teeth gleamed. Its head looked vaguely canine and vaguely human. Scanning it Shirou could tell it was monstrously strong and immensely fast and inhumanely durable.

But it was just too inefficient.

The beast was upon Shirou between one blink and the next and its hand lashed out in a blow that would crush his chest and obliterate his heart and lungs. Its speed was far past Shirou's and there was no way that he could dodge it.

So Shirou activated his last trump card.

[Avalon the Everdistant Utopia]

Shirou was instantly encased in a golden glow. Blow after blow was fired and none landed. Attacks were blasted towards the young magician and all missed. Nothing pierced the defence of Avalon.

This was Shirou's last trump card when all else failed. While Avalon was powerful it drained his prana and Shirou found himself approaching rock bottom. The other problems was that he was unable to move while he used it and he had as of yet found no way around that.

Shirou briefly worried about the Scabbard running out before the Vampire but his worries were for nothing. Each massive blow, each tremendous impact quickly drained the Apostle Ancestor of his remaining energy. Bit by bit Rowan began to shrink his energy finally running out until all that was left was a small pile of the Black Goo.

Shirou dropped Avalon sighing as he contemplated his absolutely bottomed out reserves. He fell down onto his knees wincing at the pain. He might have just stretched a ligament there. Typical the worst injury in the whole fight and he gets it in such a stupid way.

Suddenly the ball of Black Goo leaped at him forming small teeth before it stopped in mid-air. "Always with the tunnel vision, right Rowan," said Shirou as he held up his glove. The glove was always so useful in manipulating the fluids of his opponent's bodies.

Unclipping the water bottle from his belt he levitated the Black Goo into the bottle like his friend. Sealed the bottle activating its durability spells and passed out like that.

Arcueid found him like that later sleeping on his knees with a bottle full of the black goo next to him.

 **Author Note: suddenly being a little problematic to upload on but some nice folks posted a walkaround. Anyway this chapter was the big fight against Chaos. For the record Arcueid actually did the most damage to him. If the blows she landed against soil of genesis were against say Hercules she would have killed him all twelve times even with resistances. Anyway Shirou is not able to kill him without inflicting concepts directly on him. Something Shirou refuses to do. So he went the opposite way and forced him to use up all his energy and restrained him when he lost the energy to even mantain his own body.**

 **Thank you Tobias97 for being the only review. (Wow that sounded sour even for me) Yes nothing bad at all happens in the far side.**

 **Please, please, please read and review. Trilby out.**


	9. Tide Passes

He awoke beneath an unfamiliar ceiling, silently cursing Evangelion for getting him to use that phrase. Thinking back over the previous day he started remembering the battle and immediately wished he hadn't. Groaning he pulled the pillow over his face and curled up deeper in the bed his face flushed with crimson. The battle was so close it ended up in a showdown between him and Chaos. He almost died. He almost died. His hands almost started trembling but he got it under control. He had long since progressed past the stage where he would freak out about combat. In fact he privately admitted to himself he really enjoyed combat and the showdown against Nrvnqsr was suitably dramatic. He will probably remember this fondly in future when he gets over how much of an idiot he was.

Footsteps sounded outside the door. That was probably Sumire he thought come to give him an epic chewing out. Sure enough the blond Apostle Ancestor entered the room in her customary bikini. Contrary to expectations she had a smile on her face, the same smile that she would have on before engaging in some flirtatious behaviour. "So Shirou," she said. "What's this I hear about you defeating the tenth?" She walked towards him slowly tracing her hands across her chest. "Such a brave thing you've done."

Shirou suddenly found himself unable to move not even an inch. He reached for his magic circuits but they seemed so far away. Looking up his eyes widened as he saw the bikini top break off and falls to the ground revealing an extremely nice pair of breasts that were extremely distracting to Shirou's thirteen year old mind. Sumire then stepped forward and bent down her pink lips heading towards Shirou's and then slowly moving lower.

"Stop," suddenly shouted Shirou his hands on the shoulders of the topless Sumire impersonator. He struggled to keep his eyes on her own despite the much more alluring sight below her neck. "This is a dream isn't it," Shirou said. "I haven't really woken up. It makes sense why I can't feel my magic circuits." Shirou thought about the lengths he had to go to be able to move. He had been forced to use his magic to change the description of his body from [immobile] to [mobile]. Shirou groaned as he thought, "Yup as long as I can keep a clear head there is never a time when I can't use my magic."

"But that's enough about me," Shirou said once again staring at the Sumire imposter's breasts. "I didn't expect to have an intruder in my dreams, please display your true form."

At this the Sumire imposter simply shook her head.

"I see," said Shirou still scrutinizing the magnificent pair of breasts in front of his face. "Then do you mean me any harm." Once again the imposter shook her head. "I see then was this some weird kind of gift." The imposter nodded her head once.

Shirou sighed to himself looking down, "What colossal moron sends a child a succubus." Suddenly he came to a realisation. "Hey you're not a talkative sort are you; I mean if I talk to you can you keep a secret. I just," Shirou wilted sounding defeated. "I just really need somebody to talk with right now."

The Sumire imposter got up and her bikini top appeared back in its proper place. A chair appeared out of nowhere and she sat down and looked anticipatorily at Shirou.

"Okay, okay. It's not easy to say this," Shirou hesitated. "I'm a really prideful person. It comes with being a magician." At this the Sumire imposter's eyes widened and she started to look slightly agitated. "Oh you recognize that word. Of course you must have. Magician of the fourth that's me," he said with a weak smile. "And I have amazingly good circuits. That is not bragging but merely a fact." Shirou's weak smile was replaced with a proper one. "And I love it, I absolutely adore magecraft and I have long fallen in love with my own magic. There's nothing more I like than to come home after a long day and unwind by discovering cool shit. And even that's nothing to the feeling of using cool shit on those that I have to battle against. I don't go looking for fights," he clarified. "Really I don't, but I have a hard time backing down from a fight once it starts."

"Anyway yesterday I fucked up. I planned so much that I neglected the one thing that was important. I went into the battle with multiple plans and back-ups and forgot to account for the fact that I had been awake for forty-eight goddamned hours." He looked at the Sumire his eyes widened in self-disgust. "Seriously what the fuck was I thinking? Don't answer that I know what I was thinking "Avalon will take care of it". Well apparently Avalon, miracle that it is, doesn't fix lack of sleep."

"Honestly all those fifteen hours of preparation wasted, if I dropped down next to Arcueid and took a nap it would have been more productive." He snapped his fingers. "It would have been much nicer way to spend the afternoon as well."

Shirou sighed and a look of utter frustration crossed his face. "My first plan was so simple you know. Runes weren't involved and neither was my endothermic fluid or Arcueid's gloves." Shirou shook his head. "You should see them I created these amazing gloves and this special fluid. Combined they took me over nine hours. They were truly a miraculous work that surpasses the work of professional mystic code crafters. And it was time I could have spent sleeping."

Looking incredibly bitter now Shirou continued. "My plan was originally to lure out Chaos and engage him with Arcueid. When he sent his beasts at me I was going to take ownership and make them subservient to me using my magic. When I own them the beasts start to become existences on their own and separate from the Chaos. It took me ten minutes to test this. And then I tried it in the fight and it didn't work."

Shirou had started ranting now and the Sumire imposter looking him over with interest. "I have fought drunk before against the actual Sumire and this was far worse than this. I can use my magic after downing an entire bottle of Vodka yet when I tried to tell a little dog that I was its master now my magic failed me. For the first time in a long fucking while I wasn't a magician for that short period."

Shirou placed his chin upon his hand, "Now that I think about it collapsing the roof and flooding the lobby was probably the best thing I could have done in that situation. I'm strong and fast enough in water that I could probably could have continued fighting while Arcueid did her thing even without my use of the fourth."

He shook his head. "And then the mother of all bad decisions. At this point I was panicking that my magic had disappeared so I decided to try out a new spell that I hadn't even properly named yet and in doing so I used fifty percent of my prana reserves. That spell should only take a maximum of five percent. The cost of the prana is only to analyse the area around me and the rest was my magic. And my magic responded perfectly well freezing my natural advantage and almost sending me to dream land."

"And then later when he was walking away almost drained of energy I should have let him go." Shirou said hitting his hands against the bed. "It was five-thirty he has no time to recover his energy. I could have just tracked him down during the day and sent Arcueid to paste the motherfucker. But no backing down from a fight like that would hurt my pride. It would prove I can't handle it. Well guess what, I can't handle it."

"I was so close to dying. Even now thinking back on the last moments of the fight scares me." Shirou let out a hollow laugh. "Do you know my one principle when it comes to my magic?" Looking at Sumire imposter shake her head he continued. "I refuse to alter a person's being without their express permission. My power has so much potential for harm. I could kill somebody outright yes, but I could also inflict the concept of pain on them that they would feel every day. Worse I could make somebody nicer to me or even like me. That's a road that I refuse to go down." He stood up out of the bed. "But I was scared I almost deleted the concept of Nrnqsr Chaos just because he's the only one to ever come so close to killing me."

"What do you think about that?" he said turning around but Sumire was gone. In her place was a small white haired girl with pointed ears and red eyes. "Huh," Shirou said, "You know looking back I'm incredibly glad I didn't go through with the sex.

The young girl frowned at him and then clicked her fingers and Shirou once more woke up in bed.

Looking around the room he noticed a black cat with a ribbon and white pom-poms. The cat gave a glance at Shirou and then slowly sidled from the room.

Shirou smiled feeling as if a weight had lifted off his shoulders and lay back in bed.

xxx

Many hours later Shirou awoke again in the soft bed to the sight of red eyes watching him. Yawning he blinked blearily and the visage of Arcueid came into focus. She was examining him while lying down on the bed opposite him. She looked up and down as if she could discern his very nature by his external appearance.

"Len offered to become your familiar," she said. "She must have seen something really special in you."

"Len," Shirou replied feeling as if he were a million miles behind in the conversation. "What's a Len."

"Len," repeated Arcueid the familiar cat that I was taking care of. "The one who I sent to give you that dream."

"Wait a minute, you were the idiot," replied Shirou dumbfounded.

"Hey that's very mean. And after I sent Len to help you out," Arcueid pouted.

"Who sends a succubus to a thirteen year old? Don't you have any ideas of common decency?"

"Didn't you enjoy it?" Arcuied asked.

"Of course I enjoyed it; I'm a hormonal thirteen year old. My lack of restraint does not invalidate your lack of common sense."

"Anyway ignoring that," he said cutting off Arcuied's next comment. "You said Len offered to become my familiar."

"That's right. Something you said must have impressed her. Did you put on a good performance Shirou," Arcueid said.

"I can't believe she's asking this," Shirou thought inside his mind. "Does she not get what she's implying or does she not care."

Outwardly Shirou didn't show anything but merely stared at Arcueid. After a short while Arcueid started to fidget and her smile faded.

"Nevermind," Shirou said.

"Don't just ignore me," Arcueid replied heatedly.

"How long have I been in bed," Shirou asked.

About a day and a half," Arcueid replied. "You slept through all of Monday and it is now about eleven on Tuesday."

"Okay," Shirou said while shaking the stiffness out of his limbs. "First things first." Shirou turned Arcueid. "Do you have the jar in which I stored the remnants of Nrvnqsr Chaos in? Please tell me you haven't lost the jar."

"Of course I haven't," Arcueid replied. She went to the fridge and pulled out the jar of Chaos. "I kept it in the fridge so it wouldn't escape."

"Good thinking," Shirou said. He examined the jar for a bit longer than placed it back in the fridge. "Better leave it there right now. The first moment I can I'm launching that thing into space."

"What about the other jar you had wasn't there Chaos in there as well?" Arcueid asked.

"Yeah, but it's neutralised," Shirou replied. "I was thinking of making a familiar using it but if Len's offering then I would rather have her. There were a few things I didn't get out of it I'll take it back to my workshop and properly dissect it later."

Shirou changed the subject, "So what have you been doing while I was worshipping Hypnos."

"Oh I went looking around town for the other vampire that was my original job." She then smiled. "I also got Shiki to take me to a movie as a way to make it up for killing me."

Shirou looked at her calculating his response and then sighed and let it go. Trying to apply logic to an alien existence like the True Ancestor was an exercise in futility. That she could even pass as a human was an achievement and appeared to be the upper level of what she could achieve.

Shirou looked at Arcueid, "What vampire would this be then. Please tell me it isn't another ancestor then."

Arcueid looked at him, "Michael Roa Valdamjong. The serpent of Akasha." At those words Shirou's head sprang up and he examined Arcueid intensely."

"Why is he called that," Shirou said, anything with Akasha in its name could be very dangerous. He would know.

"He reincarnates in a new body periodically. I've killed him plenty times and then in a few years he would be back."

"What has the poor bastard done to have obtained so much of your animosity White Princess?"

At this Arcueid turned away from him so that he only saw her back leaving the conversation definitely over. Chuckling at the True Ancestor's childishness Shirou got out of bed and stumbled. While his body had no tiredness or injuries and he could feel his magic circuits awake and ready to start converting od and mana into prana the same could not be said for his stomach. His mouth was parched and his stomach rumbled its displeasure with him.

The first was easily fixed as he condensed water from the room around him filtering out impurities and took a few deep gulps. His hunger however would need different means of sating. He reached inside his clothes finding his wallet miraculously intact and filtered through it noticing that he still had a good amount of cash.

"Right first food then to retrieve my Black Goo then to get a familiar," he had always wanted a familiar of his own but he had never had the time to make one or the know-how. Kiritsugu stubbornly refused to teach him until he became more responsible. He stepped out of the door noting as he did that the building Arcueid took him into was a complex of several floors. Stepping out of the compound he set off in search of a restaurant.

"Hmm let me see, a seafood restaurant. No I like seafood but I already eat too much of it due to Sumire. Fast food yeah if I want a lecture from the oceanic vampire about how I'm going to ruin my body." He came to a stop outside a curry place and after a moment of hesitation headed inside.

The inside of the restraint had a traditional Japanese feel but it was incredibly empty. Apparently eleven o'clock wasn't a good time for business. He walked up to the man at the counter and asked for a menu. While scanning the menu the man tried to make conversation with him.

"Shouldn't you be at school now kid?" the owner asked looking Shirou up and down. "You're the second child today that's come into this store today. Your parents aren't going to come looking for you are they."

"Nah my dad's pretty lax about stuff like this," Shirou replied. "Don't worry about it just get me the green curry with bread on the side."

"Alright coming right up. You can take a seat," the man said as he yelled out the order into the back.

Shirou ambled through the restaurant. Looking among the various empty seats he noticed that only one was not empty. Sitting in the corner of the room away from prying eyes sat a black haired youth. Something about the posture of the person sitting there caused him to take an interest. He took a step forward to go speak to the individual when he was suddenly overcome by a feeling of dread. Waves of terror racked his body and the figure now looking at Shirou with cold green eyes loomed over him promising death if he were to walk any closer. Shirou's body yelled at him to retreat his hands started sweating and his brain was preventing his legs from going any further. Whatever this young looking figure was it was supremely dangerous.

Shirou let out a soundless snarl and his circuits leapt to his defence. Every drop of water in every cell in his body stood firm against the assault and step by step he walked towards the table and sat down. He clamped down on his need to immediately analyse her leaving it for a possible future. Instead he placed his elbow on the table placing his chin into the palms of his hands and just stared her down.

"My, my," the young individual who Shirou now identified as a girl said. "How rude just up and sitting at a ladies table without even introducing himself." She flicked her long hair to the side and stared down at him as if he was some disgusting organism that she found at the back of her shoe. "I had better things to do than to converse with some truant child. I had hoped you would excuse yourself and leave when it became evident you are not wanted here, but it's obvious that your intelligence leaves something to be desired."

"If you are a lady I'll eat my hat. You have such a repulsive nature it's actually tainting this fine establishment. I'm afraid your proximity may make the food taste bad maybe I should do the owner a favour and take you out right now."

"Please after such a poor showing against the tenth. You're an idiot that only won because God in his infinite mercy decided that you should have an artefact that clearly is too good for you."

"You knew about Chaos and you did nothing." Shirou shook his head. "Of course you did you're the kind of person who only cares about herself and her own whims. The sort of person who's going to die alone and unloved as their own colleagues celebrate their death."

"Probably," the woman smiled, "whereas you're the kind of person who's probably going to devolve into a monster massacring all those around you when you finally realise that you don't care about them at all." Her smile showed more and more teeth. "Yes, you hate me. But you still came up to meet me because I'm strong. I matter to you because I'm strong. What happens when you surpass those around you and you realise their opinions become utterly inconsequential to you. Can you bear to listen to them walk around as if they actually have any say in the world around them, or will you snuff them out. Just. Because. You. Can."

She leaned back but Shirou was not finished. The words landed like blows but Shirou shrugged them off and went back on the defensive. "A monster has no right to comment on those who can still live in society. Not only will you die alone but you most likely will take your own life. When the thrill of killing no longer sates you. When the strong are dead or out of your reach. When suffering inflicted on those lesser than you is not enough to tide you over you will turn the knife upon your own flesh and in the moment before you die you will realise nothing. Even death will not be a reprieve for the madness that taints your soul. But if you are willing to go ahead I will deliver it to you sooner if you want."

The black haired lady in front of him smiled and it was a gentle and beautiful smile utterly unfitting of the monster hiding beneath the mask. "First in the burial squad Narbareck," the lady said. "This is where you introduce yourself."

"Magician of the Fourth," Shirou Inke he stated his utter hostility hidden behind a blank exterior. "What brings a relentless murderer of the supernatural to this town if not Nrvnqsr Chaos."

"Why to see the boy who defeated him," Narbareck said grinning at Shirou. "And to offer him a pos…"

"I refuse," Shirou said immediately. "If I were to spend too much time with you I have a feeling I would either end up trying to kill you or liking you. I'm honestly not sure what is worse."

"My you really do know the words to a ladies heart," she said waving her hand in front of her face to mime cooling off. "Well that's all I suppose, I was going to meet you later but you were with the White Princess so I decided to see this curry my subordinate raved about." She put her hands together. "Thank you God for guiding my target to me." Turning back to Shirou she said. "Think about the offer it really does come with some good benefits and you would surely lighten up the organisation. Well ta-ta." And she left the restaurant hips slightly swaying.

Shirou lay back in his chair suddenly feeling drained. "Such a fearsome person the head of the burial squad is." Another thought struck him. "She left me with her bill, that bitch."

 **Author Note Kind of a filler chapter. I only expect two more chapters to finish up the arc. Narbareck is the canonical head of the Burial Squad and she is a bit of a shitty person. Not much has been done with her. I even had to choose hair and eye colours. She is fifteen two years older than Shirou and has already captured three Dead Apostle Ancestors for the church. Truly a monster among monsters.**

 **Reviews. Last chapter was controversial and I received a large number of reviews. Some of those problems I addressed in the chapter and the rest I will try to address now. I appreciate the criticism as it will make me a better writer.**

 **Rawrking ex555 WhenWindWirls As I tried to display in the above chapter he couldn't use the forth was because he had severe sleep deprivation at the time. The effects of sleep deprivation are nasty and it is only a testament to how much he fought against Sumire that he could still launch water and perform punches and kicks. Shirou does not really have the mind of a researcher. While he is passionate about magecraft it is the passion of somebody who painstakingly uses all their free time to collect model trains of build up a stamp collection. It's not his job its his favorite diversion from his boring life.**

 **Secondly about that Gary Stu comment. I try to show his flaws as well as his strengths and hopefully this chapter will allow you to get a better grasp of Shirou.**

 **Dpss I hate Heracles' immortality. It's such a clusterfuck of what works and what doesn't. What constitutes a different attack. How great is the level of the resistance. Can resistance been gained multiple times. Is shattering a spine different from gouging out a heart or do they both fall under the ambit of "physical damage." And don't get me started on the taking off multiple lives thing. Let me rephrase that statement by saying Arcueid in my belief the physically strongest creature in the Nasuverse was tossing out ex-ranked attacks like it was candy in a free candy factory.**

 **SentinalSlice Yeah it's my first fanfic so sometimes I don't do the words right or I forget to mention things until it becomes pertinent. I usually edit my chapter then but sometime I forget. In addition I switch between first and third sometimes... I'll stop now. Yeah I have planned how it's going to end and I do know how many arcs there are left. There is about two chapter of this arc then it is the invasion of Germany Arc.**


	10. Suitide Row

Shirou stretched as he walked down the street. The food had been good and he had found that Narbareck had apparently not ordered too much before she walked out so he still had some money left over. Walking to an out of the way spot in the park he mentally looked for land marks then spun up his circuits and stamped his foot on the ground.

What actually happened was that water was created from his prana an inch from beneath his foot and seeped into the ground pouring in the cracks in the dirt. The water drifted down until it encountered a glass object then it latched onto the object and with a jerk the ground erupted. Shirou caught the glass object heading towards his head and then examined it. The black liquid roiling around inside the jar seemed to eagerly greet him.

Of course it would, the first thing he did when he obtained it was to bind it to him. While the Piece of Chaos may have had its origins in Nrvnqsr's body but now it was as much under his control as Avalon. It sat there as a formless substance that just begged to be moulded into something. Looking it Shirou believed he could almost see the primordial ooze from which the earth sprang forth. Shirou couldn't wait to get his hands on it. Reluctantly he strapped the bottle to his belt, noting down the fact that in future he needed to get some form of bag of holding to carry all his stuff around. Yeah, he needed some wallet or pouch that he could open and pull out various mystic codes. That was definitely something to consider later, once his work here in the city was done.

His work here in the city that was a thought. He really lacked the ability to avoid sticking his nose in these kinds of business didn't he? From what he heard about Roa he wouldn't die even if he was killed. Shirou didn't really have a way of preventing his soul from reincarnating. Except one, the big one, the one he swore he would never use.

Shirou smiled ruefully, he truly felt better today. All the things piling up, complications that ate up his time and gave him more to worry about. The stress of having to deal with such a high-ranked ancestor welled up in him and he found himself giving a horribly sub-optimal performance. Now that the pressure from Nrvnqsr was gone he could finally think clearly.

Roa was not a Dead Apostle Ancestor. That did not make him not dangerous but it did mean that Shirou would be able to handle him. Unlike the previous one if he kept his wits about him he should be able to go into the fight and win. Shirou's hand drifted to his necklace for the third time in the last half an hour. Upon activating [Poseidon's Eye] he should know exactly where the reincarnating Dead Apostle is and he should be able to track them down instantly. The problem with that was he knew he should get Arcueid before he went to confront Roa but he also knew that if he located him he would be very tempted to charge in immediately.

Shirou stood paralysed momentarily with indecision before he deliberately raised his hand to his necklace and poured his prana into it. Getting an image of the city he quickly signalled out the various power sources. There were quite a few sources of prana. The large one at the school he identified as the blue haired exorcist that he had faced a few days ago. There was also the massive one at Arcueid's place whose identity was obvious. He tried to look for Narbareck but found him unable to pick up anything about her at all. The fact that he couldn't track her made him severely nervous for a few reasons.

Lastly he scanned the Tohno mansion and what he saw made his blood run cold. Usually there were about four moderate powers in the mansion. He referred to moderate powers as beings that were not on the level of an Ancestor or a very powerful magus or him.

Now however there was only one and moderate did not seem to be the correct term to apply to it. Any magical energy that approached the being got devoured and he could feel the water in the air start to get colder.

Shirou started to immediately take off and then stopped. Arcueid was sleeping and a way's away from him but whatever was in there could lead to serious danger. Thinking quickly he came up with a plan.

"Len," he yelled out ignoring those few people around in the afternoon. After a minute or two the black cat popped out. "I think I found Roa," Shirou addressed the feline. "He's at the Tohno mansion. Go find Arcueid and tell her that. I'm going to go ahead and engage him. Thank you."

At that he took off heading for the Tohno mansion. He ignored the stares of the bystanders as he ran at speed barely verging on human. Arriving at the mansion and seeing the locked gates and the vacant streets he vaulted through over the gates and headed towards the door. Knocking on the doors once he noted they were locked he immediately kicked the door breaking the lock and causing the hinges of the door to bend. Sprinting through the door he entered the dining room and stopped.

Sitting at the head of the dining room sipping tea was Akiha. She looked ever the picture perfect beauty that she portrayed herself to be and yet something was clearly different. Ripples in the air approached and Shirou flung himself back noticing as he did that the water in the air froze in front of him.

"You," Akiha said, looking at him, "Shirou wasn't it." She laughed and it was a hollow thing. "You said you would be the one to stop me." Her voice started to rise and a note of hysteria slipped in. "So why the hell didn't you."

"Suddenly Shirou's mystic sense went haywire and he felt ripples converging on him from all sides. Channeling prana into his ring a wall of water around him and after an instant became a wall of ice. Shirou's eyes grew wide as he examined the ice.

"Temperature control. No, you're just absorbing heat." He shook his head a strained smile taking its place on his face. "But this is still not enough to even scratch me." He raised his hand and pointed at Akiha and the ice broke off into shards and flew at her. Akiha dodged the ice flying at her with graceful movements. "Ice would be your weakness as it is already in a state of low temperature. You can't affect something that is already without heat."

The ripples again appeared but the water in the air condensed into a wall once again. Once again heat was stolen from the wall of water and transferred into ice. Once again Shirou shattered the ice and threw it at Akiha. This time the throw was more accurate and Akiha was hit on the shoulder by a piece of the ice. As soon as she was down the ripples stopped but they started up again when she reopened her eyes.

"I see," said Shirou. He clapped his hands together and summoned a huge amount of water. With another gesture he turned it into steam. The stream billowed out from in front of him and in under a second both he and the room were completely covered in the mist. "Your ability doesn't come with proprioception or touch. In other words your ability to direct the hair comes mainly from your sight," the voice came from around the room not in any one specific spot. "Without your sight your ability to use this power is crippled.

Akiha flooded the room with her power trying to catch the elusive magus. But to no avail. Suddenly she felt a heavy blow onto her back and she stumbled and almost fell. Snarling she turned around and focused her power on the enemy behind her in order to take out her opponent.

"You know actually I think I was initially wrong," Shirou continued his speech. "I misjudged your ability. I thought it drained heat and that was why the my icewall was able to stop it. You know, as there was no heat to steal." The voice appeared right behind her again and this time Akiha was kicked straight through the door and into the kitchen. "But instead when one of those tendrils brushed me it took a bit of my od." The mist receded slightly and Akiha could make out the features of Shirou through it. "The water was moved by a combination of my od and the outside mana. You took od from my spell but you were unable…"

Shirou stopped talking and took in the state of the kitchen dumbfounded. Unlike the pristine appearance of the dining room the kitchen looked as if a battle had gone on in there. All the appliances had been knocked over and there were cuts where Shirou could observe. Lying down face down on the floor was a pink haired girl. Shirou scanned her quickly enough to determine that she had passed on. Her cause of death was absolute draining of lifeforce.

The smile on Shirou's face grew a tiny bit stiffer and he turned to regard Akiha. The girl's hair colour had changed in the fight going from her usual black to a crimson blood colour.

"I have the set," Akiha said.

"What?" said Shirou further narrowing his eyes.

"Both of them I got. Not just Hisui I got Kohaku too. She deserved it though. She was trying to kill me. Though I deserved it in the end." Akiha's face painted a picture of suffering, "I'm a monster after all."

Shirou dreaded hearing the answer to his next question, but he felt it was the one that had to be answered anyway. "What happened to your brother?" he gulped out.

Akiha just laughed and then suddenly the entire world rippled. Od was being drained from every shield he threw up and it was only the fact that she couldn't steal mana that prevented her from overcoming his defence. Of course if he wanted to he could have taken her out in one hit. Her body was sturdy when compared to a human but nowhere near sturdy enough to deal with a blast of water heading at over the speed of sound impacting against her torso.

Shirou abandoned his goal of figuring out her power and using the fourth examined her. What he saw struck him with anguish. Akiha was not going to survive. In the second floor of the mansion lay Shiki's dead body and her friend and confident Kohaku lay dead killed in her room. At this point even if he sealed off her bloodlust she would only stay in this life for the time it took to make a noose. He could have saved her earlier but he didn't have the time.

Filled with despair he kept looking and looking for some way to save her and he found none. Then he saw it. It was small and attached to Akiha in some odd way. Shirou wasn't able to precisely tell what it was as for the first time in a while he found himself lacking context. But he was able to tell who it was.

Michael Roa Valdamjong. The serpent of Akasha. The one who inhabited Akiha's brother originally. The one who caused him to hunt down people. Ultimately destroyed by Akiha yet it transferred to her and influenced her to kill her brother and then her servants. It was its fault. The reason why Shiki's dead. Why Akiha is going to die. Why Shirou could not save them.

It was his fault. All his fault. Shirou was going to kill him. No Shirou was going to erase him. Shirou had upon first obtaining his magic and working out its potential had laid down one absolute restriction on himself.

He must not change a person without that person's permission.

Right now however he was confronted with a situation where if he let him go he would cause more damage to the world when he reincarnated. He would leave more broken families like the Tohno's. He would kill more people and raise more dead.

But that was a lie. In that instant he wanted to kill him because more than anything else in the world he hated him. That was all there was.

Shirou walked forward. The ripples came thick and fast. Most were blocked by the water whirling around him. One or two of the ripples bypassed his defence but were unable to drain him of his relatively high od in the span it took for him to send a blast of water at Akiha and disrupt her concentration.

Walking forward he came to a stop in front of the red-haired girl. He had only met her once but he liked her attitude and he had a feeling they could have become friends in future. Either way he said looking into her eyes that gleamed with anticipation as she stared back at him. She will be a person that he would never forget.

After all how could you ever forget the first person you failed so utterly?

Reaching down into her very being he grasped the concept of [Michael Roa Valdamjong] and swiftly crushed it. His rage-filled focus pushing him to the heights of fourth magic he had never reached before allowing him to destroy the very concept of the being with no resistance. After all what was left of the Serpent of Akasha but a concept. He had no body; no soul, no mind and thus he proved himself the most vulnerable to Shirou's magic.

Looking back into Akiha's hope eyes he picked up a strange mix of emotions. There was pain, a parade of agony deeper than Shirou had ever felt. There was resignation, she knew today was her last day on earth and faced it with resolve. There was regret, so heavy it appeared to be crushing the woman where she stood. But beneath all of that one emotion stood out.

Hope, she hoped when she died that she would see her brother and her friends again. Shirou didn't quite know what would happen when a person dies. Magus believes a person returns to the route. The church believes that the person enters heaven or hell. Sumire believes a person reincarnates into a fish. But in this one instant he truly wished that Akiha's wish would come true.

"I'm going to kill you," he said to her using a statement that would seem like a threat in any other case.

"Please," she replied.

Shirou raised his hand before he paused for a moment. He felt he had to say some words before she died. But condolences seemed empty and apologies seemed pointless by now.

"We will meet again," he said. The words sounded ridiculous as he said them but he somehow knew them to be true. For a moment he almost felt like he glimpsed a future where both Akiha and Shiki met again but the vision was fleeting and insubstantial and gone before he even acknowledged it.

His hand descended and in an instant Akiha's body had ceased to exist.

xxx

Walking out of the Tohno Mansion he met Arcueid who was standing outside. "Will you be okay," the vampire said concern evident in her voice.

He didn't bother asking how she knew what went on in there. At that point in time if a dragon tore down the rest of the mansion he wouldn't have noticed.

"I think I will be," he said. His smile was weak. It was far weaker than usual but held a genuine quality. "I'll just have to keep moving forward, learn from my mistakes and become the perfected [Shirou Inke]. That's all part of growing up."

"So what are you going to do next," Arcueid said inquisitively, "because I think Len really wants that binding thing done."

"Yeah I'll do that next," Shirou said looking wistfully at the sky. "Then I think I'm going home."

"I'll come with you," Arcuied said.

"What?" said Shirou flatly. "Do you know how hard it was for my dad to get used to Sumire. How do you think he'll react to the freaking White Princess?"

"Nope, not changing my mind, you helped me with Roa. I can feel the portion of my powers he took returned to me. Plus," and at this point Arcueids voice noticeably hitched, "Shiki showed me how amazing the world is. If I go back to sleep and ignore all the stuff he showed me it will be like it didn't matter. Like he didn't matter."

Arcueid turned and walked away from the manor. After a moment Shirou followed her.

 **Author Note A short chapter but one that was incredibly hard to write. Akiha is actually my second favourite girl after Arcueid so this chapter hurts a bit. I may have to revise it in future if the character interaction is a bit too off. The theme of this chapter may as well be regret. The time period was too short for love or friendship to blossom. Shirou only had one meeting and Arcueid only went on one date with Shiki. However both had the same thought at their deaths. They were a person that I feel like I could have got along with. If I had only done this thing they would have still been alive. I never really got to know them.**

 **ex555 I never really got fanfiction app on Smartphone. Need some time to not be doing this. I have not watched ultraman or kamen rider. Never been a huge fan of cheesy japanese shows. Will read the fanfics though.**

 **Tobias97 Sacchin may or may not be in the next chapter.**

 **One last chapter of the arc. Please read and review.**


	11. Wetting out a dive

"Mystic Eyes of Depth Perception," Shirou repeated. "Isn't that kind of a thing we all have because that sounds rather underwhelming?"

"No," Arcueid repeated. "It was Mystic Eyes of DEATH Perception. Shiki said it took the forms of lines and by cutting the lines the object just fell to pieces. It also made it so that the object couldn't regenerate. I had to recreate my whole body to survive. It took me about eight percent of my power."

"Wow that really sounds like something I would have liked to experiment with. I'll add that to my mountains of regrets that I've had on this trip." Shirou smiled a grin that didn't quite reach his eyes. "They've got quite a funeral going on there. He seemed to have a few friends."

"Yeah Shiki was kind of popular. I'm sure there are people that will be crushed about his death," Satsuki spoke up from beside him. Her eyes had misted up and her voice slightly shook. "Yeah I think I can see Inui down there. He's going to be crushed." Satsuki pointed down to the people at the funeral. The three of them sat on top of a building and just watched the procession from far away.

Honestly Shirou was having the hardest time of it as he didn't have enhanced vampiric senses. While his eyesight was better than average he was still having problems picking up on the individual people from this distance. It had taken them two days to hold the funeral whereas Akiha's wouldn't be for another week. The two maids whose name Shirou vaguely remembered as Hisui and Kohaku had already been buried. Nobody attended their funeral. Honestly that had felt like another stake through the heart for Shirou and he had personally gone to their graves and laid flowers.

Shirou had had a busy couple of days besides watching over the funerals. Upon leaving the scene of the massacre he had returned to Arcueid's room. By unspoken agreement with Arcueid he had stayed there for the past two days.

While there he had contracted Len. It was a simple matter to give her a bit of his blood so that she could ingest it. While he could sense that Len was a bit disappointed by the simple and brief exchange of fluids her current desires encroached on an area that he would not currently touch with a ten foot pole. Having Len as his familiar was great as Shirou found he was a good listener and she was slowly wearing him down on the other benefits.

Shirou shook his head and gazed back at the funeral which was coming to a close. "By the way," he heard Arcueid speak up beside him, "you never told me how you managed to kill Roa."

"Didn't I," said Shirou smiling at Arcueid. "I must have forgotten how I did it." His smile widened. "Heat of the moment and whatnot."

"Does it have anything to do with your magic," Satsuki spoke up beside him.

Shirou resisted the tremendous urge to rest his face in the palm of his hand. Sumire as always had a big mouth.

Arcueid didn't pick it up however. "Shirou doesn't have magic he has magecraft." Arcueid then launched into a surprisingly detailed explanation of the five true magics compared to modern magecraft while Satsuki sat enraptured at the retelling.

Listening to the girls talk made Shirou smile. Every day he had started feeling a bit better. The thought of people he knew just dying like that faded a bit more every day. Len had truly won his friendship for the role she played in that.

Focusing once again on the explanation, Shirou decided to undermine Arcuied's point in a minor way. While Shirou didn't go out of his way to announce the fact that he was a magician, Narbareck was different that witch was fucking challenging him, he also didn't believe in hiding it. With Arcueid staying over for a bit he was sure she'd see it eventually. When he got home he fully intended practicing using his magic and incorporating new concepts. While Shirou had previously focused on practicing his magecraft to the extent he could easily take on most fully established magi, he fully admits that he neglected practicing his magic, utilising it as a sort of trump card.

Plus both Chaos and Akiha had given him idea's of how he could apply concepts to attacks and then launch the attack and combine it with the concept simultaneously.

"Actually, Arcueid I am a magician," Shirou stated. "I'm a magician of the forth true magic."

"Ehhh," Arcueid said momentarily taken aback.

"Wow you pretty cool for a kohai aren't you Shirou," Satsuki said giving him a wink.

"No," Shirou replied holding his hands in front of his chest rejecting her sentence enitrely. "You have not spent nearly enough time around the waterdwelling bloodsucker to start emulating her." He shook his head. "Next I'll find out you spend all your time wearing a bikini when not in public." He looked to her again and saw her wearing a heavy blush. "Oh my god you really do. She's got you it's too late."

"Wait," Arcueid interrupted, "You said you're a magician like Zelretch right."

"Well yeah," Shirou said. "Except I have better taste than magical girls. Honestly it is not that I'm against female empowerment, it would be kind of hypocritical when my best friend regularly kicks my ass. I just dislike the prospect of "oh the earth is in danger, let's have schoolgirls save it, transform into costumes, that someone spent way too much time drawing up, and juggle school and boyfriends with saving the world". Honestly if you have to save the world fucking commit to it. Take a break from the whole school thing and train. Why would you honestly devote any attention to romance in this situation? I can't juggle it and I only go on an adventure about once every year. And the worst thing, the fucking worst thing of all the hearts and the pink and the frilly dresses and the cutesy fucking pet animals. You are trying to goddamn save the world. Dresses are not a practical part of any saving the world scheme unless it's some sort of weird political marriage with aliens."

"Wow that's a lot of anger," Arcueid replied. "Those shows must really annoy you." Off to the side Satsuki had turned away and started looking anywhere except his eyes.

"Honestly I'm just waiting for somebody to Evangelion that shit. A dark deconstruction of the genre is something I would definitely watch if it ever comes out." He sighed and shook his head. "Nevermind yes I am a magician. I have the forth magic, control over concepts."

"Wow does that mean you can create conceptual weapons or manipulate concepts such as gravity or something," Satsuki spoke up. "Or can you make something that doesn't exist real."

"Yes, I have no idea, and yes but it's kind of a bitch to circumvent the first magic like that," Shirou replied. "I actually have to test the second one out. I can't see gravity but I might…" Shirou's voice trailed off and he retreated into his mind planning out scenarios.

Arcueid and Satsuki both looked to each other and shrugged before looking down at the funeral coming to a close.

xxx

Shirou was walking through the streets at ten 'o clock heading for Arcueid's house on Friday night. Tomorrow he was planning on heading home and starting work on Satsuki's little problem. While she was weak enough that either Arcueid or he could keep him in check it was getting annoying both for her and for all of them to keep babysitting her. Sumire however loved having her over but he refused to let her spend all her time there.

Sumire was something a person should only take in small doses after all and Satsuki had yet to build up the proper immunity. He had already spent the day using his spell to search out the remains of the dead. Sensing something following him he walked into one of Misaki's many alleys and came to a stop. He put his hands into his pockets and waited for a moment for the person following him to show themselves.

He didn't have to wait too long as the blue-exorcist he met on his first night in Misaki, so long ago. She wore her usual exorcist robe but this time she didn't have any black keys. In addition he didn't appear to be hostile so Shirou in turn kept his hands in his pockets and his stance relaxed. He wasn't actually relaxed, gods no. He would be an idiot to let down his guard in front of a member of the burial squad. Instead he just stood there and waited for her to make her point.

"You were the one who killed Roa weren't you," she opened up with that intensely direct question. "If it was the vampire she would have killed him long ago. Plus my boss has indicated that you were a dangerous person."

"Your boss," Shirou started to say then a look of disgust overtook his features. "You mean Narbareck."

Ciel shot him a look of understanding, "She has that effect with most of us don't worry. Thankfully she stays holed up in the church most of the time. I think sightings of Nrvnqsr drew her here."

"By the way how did you know for sure that Roa was dead? I can't think of a way the church would have determined exactly when he died given his resilience of existence."

At that she just smiled and shook her head refusing to give up those secrets. "I have a letter for you," she said displaying the letter that was pulled out from her robes. Shirou reached forward to take it. "It's from Narbareck," she continued. At this Shirou's hands froze and he looked at the letter with undisguised loathing.

"She said it contained a warning," Ciel said and threw the envelope at him. Shirou caught the envelope and examined it using the forth magic for any traps, contact poison, explosive runes etc.

Giving a wave to Ciel who had left as soon as the envelope had been deliverd he tentatively opened up the envelope and read. His eyes scanned the page trying to decipher meaning in the message that the witch had left for him.

"What the fuck is Aylesbury," Shirou said summoning water and pulping both the letter and envelope before discarding the mess in the sodden streets.

xxx

Shirou, Arcueid and Satsuki stepped out of the train and into the town of Fuyuki. Arcueid was looking around back and forth taking in the sights after fidgeting the whole ride over on the train. Satsuki also looked interested in seeing Shirou's hometown. Shirou just looked exhausted.

He exhaled breathing in the fresh Fuyuki air. "It's good to be home," he said and he found he really meant it. The whole Fuyuki affair was exhausting but he felt like he had learnt so much. Depression over the deaths of the Tohno's aside, once again the golden man had been right and he had really benefited from the experience.

Grabbing the easily distracted vampire by the arm and the less easily distracted vampire by the shoulder Shirou moved purposefully through the streets of Fuyuki. After battling for half-an-hour to keep Arcueid on course he arrived at his house. Kicking his shoes off at the door he walked inside and came to a stop seeing both Kiritsugu and Taiga sitting at the table.

Both parties went silent for a moment. Looking at Kiritsugu he saw his father staring into his eyes trying to silently ask what was with his two new companions. Taiga's response was however quite unusual.

"Shirou," she yelled, "what have I told you about bringing strange women back home."

"You told me that I can't get a romantic partner before you or it will make you feel totally inadequate."

"That's not it at all Shirou," she yelled out, Mount Tiger blowing over.

"Let's all calm down," Kiritsugu said trying desperately to keep the peace. "Shirou why don't you introduce us to your new friends."

"Okay this is Satsuki Yumizuka and Arcueid Brunestud," Kiritsugu's eyes widened at the last name and then he sighed. "We have spare rooms," he said. "Shirou you can go show them around the house."

After Shirou had finished the job of showing them to their rooms he returned to the kitchen to see Kiritsugu staring at him. Without even being prompted he began to explain what had happened during his time in Misaki, paraphrasing some things and removing some of the profanity and Narbareck.

After he had finished Kiritsugu pulled out a cigarette and just started to smoke. If Kiritsugu wasn't there Shirou would have probably gone for his secret whiskey bottle. "That was one hell of a weekend you had son," Kiritsugu said after a while. "So you're trying to reserve the vampirification process of the new Dead Apostle and you're playing a good host for the True Ancestor."

"Yeah, she's different from what you'd expect of a True Ancestor," Shirou replied. "She said something went wrong when she was cut to pieces."

They sat in silence for a while. Then after a while Kiritsugu started to laugh. "I really can't take you to the Clocktower can I. You're only thirteen and you're already doing experiments on Dead Apostles."

"Well it's not like they can give me a sealing designation. I'm a magician, they would know better than to waste their lives coming after me."

"Only if you announced you were a magician," Kiritsugu replied. "If you don't then they will just keep dying trying to take you in."

"Meh," Shirou replied dismissively, "they're magi, I'll probably gain Karma by putting them down. But I see your point."

Shirou stood up from the table. "I will not deliberately piss off any of the magi families. Except for the Einzberns in future. When are we on for that by the way?"

"About eight months. By the way Shirou," Kiritsugu fashioned him with a glance, "You've been away for a week. Have you caught up on the homework? I believe Taiga has dutifully brought over your homework every day," at this Kiritsugu smiled.

"Damn," Shirou replied, "the tiger got me." He stood up and headed out of the room. "Well I better get started on that homework. See you later old man."

Shirou headed to his room. He passed Arcueid's room and briefly looked in to find her snoring her head off. Obviously the True Ancestor was not a very diurnal creature. He walked past Satsuki's room and stuck his head in to see her reading manga in her bikini. Their eyes briefly met and he dodged the random pillow thrown at his head with the grace of an expert.

Walking into his own room he looked at the stack of homework on his desk. He then pointedly ignored it and walked to a specific spot on the floor. He spun up his circuits and conjured a small amount of water. That water seeped under a small crack on the floor and with a small creak the crack widened and a trapdoor appeared and was opened by the water.

Reaching into the trapdoor Shirou pulled up his special whiskey. It was a gift from Sumire and it was probably ridiculously expensive. He rummaged around a bit more before he found what he was looking for.

It was a simple but thick book. On it was the heading, "A comprehensive insight into the Sui Deus thaumaturgical foundation system and the applications therof.

With a click of his fingers he summoned one of the pens from his desk by manipulating the ink inside it. He sat down took a swig of his whiskey and began to write.

"As beings naturally opposed to Gods this style also has a myriad number of ways of defeating Demons and sealing either their bodies or their bloodlust. This system uses the calming and manipulative nature of water…"

His pen danced across the page as he expanded his system new spells already coming to mind as he determinedly carved out a way to prevent any future tragedies.

 **Author Note The arc is done. Happy New Year by the way. I'm watching Dubai's fireworks as I'm typing this out.**

 **Aesir19 Nice easy question to answer. In canon (and this by extension) she was at fifty percent up from thirty once Roa was dead.**

 **Pepebomb I generally dislike harem stories. I will only ever make this a harem if it feels both natural and in character.**

 **KRKing I have no plans for Caren currently but then again I still haven't even decided on most of the servants that will eventually be summoned. I'm keeping the future story plans flexible and may include or exclude characters if necessary.**

 **Darkjaden Yes this chapter. Lol.**

 **Sandmanwake They're not a magus family they don't have any research that he wants. What else would he steal, money. Most families would keep that in banks and anyway Shirou's well off already. Kiritsugu's alive and earning dough.**

 **Rangle I'm sorry. I genuinely don't know what I'm doing wrong. I even looked up on TvTropes the common signs of Gary Stu and I can't find out how Shirou qualifies. I'm not being insulting or yelling out flames but I would like to know how Shirou qualifies.**

 **Anyway read and review. Here's a last question out of all the routes and fanfictions including this one. Which Shirou do you think best embodies the concept of a [Hero]?**


	12. Can't get trout of going to shoal

"Wake up Master Inke," the voice comes from somewhere in the room. The voice has a distinctly inhuman quality and it both sounds inhumanly beautiful and a quite dangerous. "You are going to be late for school," the voice continues. "Kiritsugu has instructed me quite clearly that I mustn't let that happen."

"Damnit Nine," Shirou said rolling out of his bed. He blinked trying to get his eyes used to the sunlight streaming through his window. Focusing he took in the smiling visage of his butler. His butler had been "acquired" months ago and one of the first things that had changed was that he subsequently took it upon himself to wake Shirou up every day finally retiring Shirou's very battered and abused alarm clock. The problem was that even though Shirou was his master he obeyed Kiritsugu so that Shirou would not get into trouble. It both made Shirou happy and pissed him off that his butler was so considerate of him.

Nine stood six feet tall and looked to be in his twenties. He had black hair and eyes. He wore a stunning butler suit. You could say he was dressed to the nines, Shirou silently chuckled to himself. While he looked very ordinary, for a butler in Japan that is. Any magus would feel distinctly off guard with him due to the higher sensitivity to shifts in the ambient mana. Looking at him now even Shirou felt like nothing looked extraordinary about him. Until he flickered.

It was a thing he did whenever Shirou started seeing him as a too human. For a brief second his mask would drop and his human visage would disappear to be replaced by the image of Chaos that was his true origin. He only ever did it around Shirou and not even Kiritsugu ever saw his true visage.

"You're supposed to listen to me Nine," Shirou said grumbling.

"I'm only doing this for your own good, Master," Nine replied. "You need to go to school and keep Kiritsugu happy. A happy Kiritsugu means more magic time."

Shirou reluctantly conceded the point and quickly changed into the clothes provided for him by Nine. He quickly headed to the bathroom to do his morning ablutions knowing that Nine would be cooking for him today. While Shirou liked cooking he didn't do it during the morning anymore as he was often waking up late due to too much magic practice. Heading downstairs he passed Kiritsugu and greeted him inquiring about any further updates in the Einzbern plan.

Kiritsugu replied in the negative and stated that there was a visitor downstairs for him. Walking into the kitchen he came across a bikini clad Satsuki who was savouring the food. In the corner of the kitchen was Len who had likewise shown up for breakfast and was munching into the deluxe cat food with modest glee.

"Hey," Shirou initiated the conversation. "Haven't seen you for a while Satsuki." He stared into her hazel eyes and watched as she finished up her current dish.

"Yeah," she said wiping her mouth. "Things were a bit rough at home. It's nothing terminal but I had to get away. So I told my parent's I'm staying over here."

Shirou winced at that. When he had convinced Satsuki's parents that she was going to the hospital it had apparently torn into a lot of old family drama. Satsuki didn't blame him saying that he merely set off the powder keg that was their family and he more than made up for it by helping her afterwards.

"I bet they weren't expecting the friend to be over in another city were they," Shirou said to Satsuki with a wry smile.

"Yup," Satsuki replied with a toothy smile. "Benefits of being the favoured sibling."

Satsuki was referencing the fact that barely a month after their initial meeting Sumire had taught Satsuki her teleportation technique. Despite mostly being human by that point Satsuki had both acquired enough goodwill from the vampires and had enough magical ability and aptitude to learn it and it pissed Shirou the hell off. In fact it annoyed him to such an extent that not even a month later Shirou had learned how to use his magic to alter the coordinates of his existence and teleport anywhere for which he knew the coordinates.

In fact it was both a point of irritation and admiration from his entire circle that he had manged to partially unvampire Satsuki. Vampirism was an infection of the soul something that he as a person who was not knowledgeable about the third could only affect tangentially. Therefore instead of reversing the vampire treatment he was only able to help Satsuki symptomatically. Therefore technically Satsuki was a vampire albeit one that has no craving for blood or desire to kill and whose body does not periodically break down. As a trade-off she lost a huge chunk of her speed and strength but her time reversal stayed. Shirou had currently neither the knowledge nor the desire to unbind the curse of restoration. As a side effect Satsuki had also started gaining mystery at an even greater rate than a normal vampire, probably due to Shirou's bodily manipulations.

Arcueid, Sumire and Kiritsugu had promptly forbidden him from making another one or revealing he could do it, although he was currently working on a project with Arcueid to reduce her bloodlust. That project was kind of an annoyance as fixing something of Arcueid's status was a bit harder than a newly born vampire.

Speaking of the vampire Shirou had yet to see her. "Satsuki have you seen Arcueid recently."

Satsuki didn't reply but another voice did. "I do believe she had left to go hunting down a particularly nasty Dead Apostle in Russia," Nine said as he walked into the room carrying Shirou's breakfast. "Now I believe you have about twenty minutes to finish breakfast and get to school.

Hearing that Shirou wolfed down the remains of his breakfast, and using the fourth he quickly grabbed his bags and teleported to an alleyway near the school that was always unoccupied at that time. "Almost always unoccupied," he corrected in his head, "but that's what hypnosis is for."

Strolling into the school gates he walked past through the crowds of those students who didn't have before school activities. Ahead was a slight commotion and with some slight amount of interest he realised it was Tohsaka and Matou two people who he really didn't feel like meeting now in this morning. Most likely Matou had said something flirtatious and Tohsaka was putting him in his place. He didn't have time for this though as school was starting… "Wait a minute," he thought to himself staring up at the sun gauging its location. "If school was starting soon then they wouldn't be outside arguing." His eyes widened as he came to the realisation that Nine had set him up. "Meh," he thought, "He probably thought I was leaving too late. I don't really care enough at the moment to reprimand him."

"Wait," Shirou thought to himself. "I have time." Without further ado he walked up to the arguing couple and decided to mess with them a bit.

"Woah," Shirou started, interrupting the feuding duo, "A lover's quarrel right in front of the school, how bold airing your dirty laundry in public."

"Inke," Tohsaka spat out the word, looking as if he had just ruined her whole day. She as usual wore her red coat over a girls version of the Homuhara high uniform and had her black hair in pigtails.

"Wow Tohsaka, if you keep looking at me with eyes like that I'll think you've fallen for me," Shirou said in a false coy tone of voice.

"I'm afraid to burst your bubble Inke but I wouldn't fall for you if you were the last person on earth," she took a side look at Matou and amended, "Second to last person on earth."

"Always wound up so tight I can nearly hear the springs snap, and as I've said before you can call me Shirou," Shirou said his smile genuinely widening as he took part in one of his favourite activities in high school."

"Can't you tell you're not wanted?" Shinji said to him. He and Shinji definitely did not get on. It was entirely the fault of the blue-haired youth. He foisted some work given to him by the teachers onto Shirou and Shirou did definitely not forgive. From then on Shirou had gone out of his way to foil multiple dates of his and irritate him whenever he got the opportunity. Speaking of that it was probably time for another attempt.

"Don't be like that Matou," Shirou smiled at him. "Hey do you want to see a magic trick." At this Shirou pulled out a deck of cards. Shirou was in fact an average magician. No to rephrase that he was an epic user of the forth magic but his street magic was only average. Luckily the forth magic used no prana and his street magic was available on the internet and he could combine them to pull off some David Blaine level street magic. He mainly used his newfound teleportation to pull out cards from anywhere and everywhere.

"Also without fail the emergence of his magic cards never failed to piss off both Tohsaka and Matou."

"No for the last time I don't want to see a magic trick," Shinji yelled at him while Tohsaka frowned clearly conflicted between enjoying seeing Shinji taken down a peg and Shirou's trivialisation of magic.

"Are you sure you don't want to. I'm a really good magician after all," he said speaking one hundred percent truth.

"Man Shinji you're such a killjoy," Shirou said. He decided to take his mockery to the next level. "And your grandfather was so nice," he said. This was one hundred percent a lie. If Shirou ever met the man he would probably kill him out of principle.

"What," Shinji said his eyes bulging comically and even Tohsaka was taken aback.

"Yeah, we met down by the park one day. Your grandfather is an expert on bugs you know." At this Shirou adopted a fake nostalgic smile. "We spent an afternoon just discussing entomology."

"Ahh good times," Shirou fake reminisced ignoring Shinji's wide eyes. "Oh well I've got to go. Catch you two later." Shirou waved and left.

Walking through the doors of the school he caught the eye of Shinji's significantly better looking sister. He smiled genuinely at her and waved. Sakura saw him and waved back tentatively. Sakura was a person of interest for him. When he passed her initially he could feel the very faint ripples that denoted a magus. However a few days later when he had bumped into her he had felt a lot more. Wow that sounded dirty in his head. No brimming beneath the skin of Sakura was a dark power just waiting to be unleashed on the world. After that Shirou was immediately intrigued at the scale of the abomination. Whatever Eldritch God had spawned Sakura Shirou wanted to watch and see the results. There were mainly two reasons why he hadn't examined her further. One he had invested time into trying to figure out what it was without his magic and to just scan her and instantly know it would feel like a letdown. Two he had only discovered this about a month ago and he was waiting any day now to go rescue Kiritsugu's daughter. He had no current time for sidequests so to speak.

He continued on to his class where he sat on his chair and began to sleep. When his teachers came he paid the minimum amount of attention and dutifully answered important questions. "Man," Shirou thought, "my school life needs more wacky hijinks."

Kuzuki Souchirou's class he paid attention in because he would never fall asleep in Kuzuki's class. The first time he walked into the class Shirou nearly shot out of his seat right there. Only his well-trained self-control kept him from going into fight or flight mode. The man had a better assassin walk then his father. He observed him stealthily the whole time in class.

After the lesson he paid Kuzuki a visit and showed him a magic trick. That time the card appeared from right next to his jugular vein. He then gave him the warning that if anybody in the class turns up dead he knows who his first guess would be. Kuzuki took the threats seriously and he stated to Shirou that his only goal was to be a teacher. After judging his certainty by a slight use of the forth magic Shirou had thanked the man and bid him good-day. Still neither of them would ever let their guard down while near the other.

At lunch time after devouring his bento he wandered around the school seeking interesting things. He contemplated starting an argument with Rin again but then he noticed Yukika sitting with the rest of the track group at the table next to her. If he starts an argument she would look up at him and earnestly and politely ask him to stop. It was an attack to which he had no defence.

So he did the next best thing. "Hey Yukika, Himuro, Black Panther. How are you doing today?"

"You are doing this to annoy Rin aren't you," Himuro replied automatically. The serious looking gray haired girl staring at him from behind her spectacles. "You're sitting by her and deliberately not picking a fight."

"Yeah I know," Shirou replied knowing the game is up. "It's fun to watch. You can actually see the evolution of her thought process whenever I do this. First she carries on the whole I'm an honour student I'm above your petty reasons. Then she slowly starts glancing at me after the first minute mark. Then she gets really impatient and starts drumming her fingers on the desk and then after that she will initiate."

"Why do you even want to do that," the Black Panther of Homuhara or Kaede Makidera replied. "You don't seem to hate her." She then looked Shirou in the eyes and asked him directly. "Are you teasing her to get her to notice you?"

"No," Shirou responded immediately, "If I wanted to get into her pants," he started. "Which I still believe I'm too young for, get your mind out of the gutter," he said upon seeing all three girls turn red. "I would go about it in a different way. Nope in this case Ms Tohsaka is the fortress and the prize is seeing the fortress crumble into impotent rage. I merely act as a purveyor of chaos and mayhem. Now please be quiet she's coming over."

"Inke have you finally got enough of troubling the people in your own classroom," Tohsaka said her hands on her hips she looked a bit off guard as was the effect of this strategy.

"Nah," Shirou replied relaxed. "I was just going to show these people a magic trick when you came around Tohsaka. You don't have to worry you weren't barging in on some really important conversation. I would never dream of calling your manners into question." Shirou laughed. "You can come talk to me anytime you want Tohsaka. Maybe we can even have the conversation in English."

"It was one mark!" Tohsaka said in a sort of low shout. "You beat me by one mark. Stop implying I'm bad at speaking English."

Shirou shook his head, "Always seeing the worst in everybody Tohsaka at that rate you'll never get a girlfri… I mean boyfriend."

In under normal cases that would be below the belt but Tohsaka had started it a couple months earlier when she implied that he and Issei were romantically involved. Shirou had just rolled with it and for the next week spoke to every guy with the prefix of darling before he got bored. But in doing that Tohsaka had left herself open to this specific counterattack.

"Can you stop please," Yukika said drawing the match to close like a prime time referee. "You two should be a bit nicer to each other. You're both amazing you don't have to fight."

At this Shirou sighed. Yukika was both adorable, with her plain hair and big brown eyes coupled with her short stature she kind of reminded Shirou of a puppy and always spoke sincerely. In addition she along with Issei were the only people that he knew of that he would consider a purely good person. After that display he wouldn't be able to enjoy a battle with Rin for a week.

"Well if that's it I should be heading out to the classroom. "Yukika, Himuro, Black Panther and Rin," At this he smiled sincerely, "It was nice talking to you." At this he turned and walked out of the room ignoring Rin's sputtering.

xxx

Shirou was and always will be a very dedicated member of his club. While in club obsessed Japan the going-home club was never very popular Shirou attended it religiously. When walking home he passed a restaurant and saw a familiar man sitting in one of the open air booths. He immediately went inside and sat opposite Gilgamesh. The man would only ever show up if he wanted to address Shirou about something. "You may as well order, I'll pay for your meal." At this Shirou quickly scanned the menu and picked the most expensive thing before stating his order to the waiter.

"So what do you have to tell me this time? If you have some new advice on vacation spots I'm afraid I may be too busy in the near future."

"Rescuing your sister right," Gilgamesh replied. "A worthy cause and something that I have no doubt will give you a good amount of growth."

"Growth," Shirou mused over that word. "Yes I suppose I did grow on the last one also. But it also lead to the deaths of two people."

"Yeah," Gilgamesh said and for a moment Shirou though he looked very melancholy. "Death is always scary. It is the ultimate unknown. Not even I can see what lies beyond."

"So if you're just going to tell me to go what was the point of meeting with me. I was going to go anyway."

"Actually I met you here to give you two pieces of advice and a warning," Gilgamesh paused, "Your food is here," he said as the waiter arrived with Shirou's dish. "You can eat I'll continue talking. First piece of advice is to finish that spell you've been working on."

Shirou refrained from asking how he knew about that spell instead allowing Gilgamesh to continue.

"Second piece of advice take every scrap of research you from them." At seeing Shirou's incredulous look he elaborated. "You will need it in future. I'm not a magus. I care little for their so-called heresies. If you don't get the research then it is likely your sister will die anyway."

"My warning on the other hand is this. Don't lose sight of what's important. Very seldom is everything lost and you are a person who will always be caught when necessary."

At those last cryptic words Gilgamesh stood up and left the restaurant. "By the way," he said turning back to Shirou, "feel free to order anything else you want, it's already been paid for."

Shirou smiled and started rummaging through the dessert menu.

 **Author Note So here's the chapter. I just wanted it to be a bit more slice of life before the heaviness of the next arc. Yes Nine is the result of the black goo and he is absolutely loyal to Shirou. Yup Rin and Shirou do not initially get along. Their personalities clash as they are both strong willed people who don't back down. Right now Sakura has intrigued Shirou but not much more as they haven't had a proper long conversation. Yukika, well cute things are Shiro's kryptonite. He finds it incredibly hard to deny Len anything.**

 **aliesterus Thanks for the reccomendation but I already know and have watched Madoka Magica. Difference between the character speaking and the author in this case. This chapter takes place in the year two thousand Madoka comes out in twenty eleven. I actually have some trouble with that now and again keeping track of what each character knows.**

 **sandmanwake This is going to make me sound a bit harsh. I really appreciate your review but I'm going to have to be blunt about this. Saving a person does not mean they automatically fall in love with you. It brings temporary feelings of gratitude. What determines whether a character can get together is if they have good synergy and can see themselves spending their lives together. Caren would get on well with this Shirou, he would be drawn to her interesting personality.**

 **Pepebomb I'll try not to force you to like anybody. Everybody has flaws and I understand the annoyance when authors try to pretend that those flaws don't exist in the love interest.**

 **KRKing If I was going to use an OC I would be probably write down one or two things about them and they would be either be a minor role or killed off. While I realize how hypocritical that sounds considering this Shirou is basically an OC I will admit that I much rather prefer to redefine and extrapolate existing characters than to invent new ones.**

 **Please Read and Review. Actually at the time of writing this I just hit one hundred favorites and on my first story. Thank you to everybody who Favorited the story.**


	13. Go Assault stream

Shiro was never overly fond of planes. The fact that he just had to sit through a ten hour connecting flight from Japan to Germany did nothing to redeem the experience for him. "Still," he thought privately in the confines of his head. "Flying was better than this."

Kiritsugu and he were currently overlooking a secluded valley. They were all dressed in white and had a white tent that made them all but invisible against the snow that littered the mountains overlooking Einzbern castle. They had spent the past day just sitting outside the castle and by now Shirou was bored stiff. Kiritsugu had forbidden him from using any magecraft to warm himself up because the Einzbern probably had methods to detect it. Thankfully he could still use his magic.

Right now Kiritsugu was scoping out the perimeter watching the various homunculus go about their daily routines and look for the various weakpoints in the perimeter. He had made prior probing runs against the castle in prior years and through trial and error he managed to create an intricate map of the castle and the various entryways that could be used. Right now he was finalizing those plans and looking for any possible last minute changes that could mess up everything.

Shirou sat on a white deckchair and had hot chocolate served to him by Nine while he browsed the internet on his smartphone through the shitty reception in the valley. Shirou had already done his job when he showed up took one look at the bounded field and told Kiritsugu what it did. Well until the next stage of the plan that was. He lifted up his empty mug and Nine topped it up. Unfortunately the three of them were the only ones available for the mission.

He would have loved to bring Sumire but she was greatly weakened on land. Worse than that was she was quite clumsy as she spent the majority of her time on the water only leaving the water to visit Shirou and consume alcohol. She was also terrible with plans and Shirou didn't feel like bringing her would up the success of theirs.

Secondly was Arcueid. She could probably solo the entire Einzbern family no problem. The problems lay in the fact that if it was discovered the True Ancestor was no longer on the side of humans and actually attacked them than the church would throw a fit. Shirou really really didn't want to take on the church especially since for the most part they were doing good things. He also really, really didn't want to fight Narbareck.

He didn't even entertain the thought of Satsuki. Her talent aside she was still quite weak after her unvampirification and she had a lack of any killing instincts. She could very easily get herself killed on this mission.

He didn't even bother asking Gilgamesh. The golden man had flat out said he wouldn't help Shirou on any of his journeys.

On the good side Nine was ready, willing and capable to assist them on this journey. When Shirou created him he hadn't specifically intended to use him for combat. However when Nine had requested to assist them on the mission Kiritsugu undertook to test his combat capabilities. Nine acquiesced on the condition that he could fight against somebody that he couldn't kill. So Shirou and Kiritsugu asked Arcueid to try and spar against Nine.

Nine lasted three minutes. In most cases that wouldn't sound very impressive however there are very few beings in the world that can even last one minute against the True Ancestor. While Nine was not much stronger than an ordinary human, he was both far more flexible in body and had a far greater instinct to kill. Almost all of Arcueid's blows were dodged and he repeatedly struck sensitive blows to her. His form wavered constantly between liquid and solid Nine and Chaos. Even Shirou would rather avoid fighting Nine.

To that end Nine had a specific duty in the following plan. Strapped to his belt was a bag that Shirou had made with a carrying capacity of a small car. His job was to infiltrate the Einzbern's workshops and to steal all their research notes. Knowing Nine he would steal enough of the research to set the entire family back hundreds of years.

Shirou's job was the distraction. As the most powerful magus of the three and a true magician to boot he should have no trouble facing down the entire Einzbern army. The first editions of the plan called for Kiritsugu to stealthily bring down the bounded field and sneak in. This was vetoed by Kiritsugu himself when he came to realise Shirou's ineptitude at stealth and his aptitude at breaking bounded fields.

Kiritsugu's job was to rescue Illya. He was the person who was most familiar to her and would help assuage any of her worries and also the best person at stealth and tactical infiltration. While Shirou was causing trouble he would sneak in through one of the windows on the second floor.

Kiritsugu suddenly shifted and Shirou was instantly alert. His father turned towards him and just nodded his head to signal the plan was go. Shirou yawned and stretched giving his smartphone to Nine to take care of. His moonrock ring was on his left hand, his water controlling glove was on the right, his runic boots were on his feet and his necklace was on his neck. In addition two more mystic codes adorned him. A bracelet adorned his left arm, this was an evolution of the sucking sweet he had created nine months ago. Unlike the sweet that could change saliva this bracelet had the properties of changing the PH level of all nearby liquids.

His last mystic code was a gift from Kiritsugu and sat belted to his waist. Kiritsugu had tried to teach him how to use guns and Shirou found out that he was an abject failure when aiming them. So Shirou buckled down and started to work. Using a Desert Eagle that Kiritsugu had acquired for him for his twelfth birthday he started using his magecraft and magic to turn the weapon into a mystic code that can rival Kiritsugu's contender in danger.

The first thing he did was apply the concept of [Absolute Accuracy] on the gun. Whether he focused on the heart, head or hands a shot taken by this pistol would never miss, tracking its target and curving to meet their flesh. The second thing he did was to apply the boundary fields that Kiritsugu employed in time manipulation. Every bullet shot from the Desert Eagle shot out at over Mach five. The last thing he did was to fiddle with the chamber. By simply channelling his prana into the gun he had the ability to inscribe explosive runes on the next bullet.

His new updates to the mystic codes were necessary in this case. Kiritsugu stated and Shirou reluctantly agreed that a take no prisoners approach was necessary. The Einzbern were a magus family and unfortunately that meant their mentality could be best described as cult-like. Not to mention the majority of their forces were homunculus that were literally bred to be loyal to the Einzbern and they wouldn't stop coming until death.

Shirou sighed put his hands in his pockets and bounded down the mountain. Sliding down the steep slopes and jumping off sheer cliffs that no human could survive. He swiftly came upon the bounded field. It was ancient having been placed down hundreds of years ago and improved upon by generation after generation and with a swift application of his magic he destroyed it. His magic had become a lot easier for him as he practiced and got into the mind-set required to activate it.

Walking up to the great doors that lead into the castle he grimaced to see the homunculus pouring out. He really wanted to kick in the door sending it flying inwards but the destruction of the bounded field seemed to have tipped them off. Sighing he walked towards the homunculus who seemed to be split between holding weapons or mystic codes.

"You know," he said, "If you surrender to me now you'll likely survive the next few minutes. A gust of flame and wind created a minor flaming tornado that barrelled towards the young magician. The heat was overwhelming and it would have burned to ashes any normal human and indeed even any normal magus. Shirou just sighed, "So be it," he said.

Before he went on his trip to Misaki Sumire had implied that his steadily increasing levels of mystery had affected him in a special way. To be more specific she had compared his ability to that of a dragon's lungs which generate prana just by existing and count as spiritual worlds. After about a month of analysis after that clusterfuck he had finally chanced upon what she meant. A normal person's body at adulthood was sixty percent and amounts to about forty-two litres of water. Shirou's body had about one thousand litres and consisted of ninety seven percent of his body. The fact that all this water was continuously soaked in his prana gave him great control over his own body. But there another thing he could use it for. He quickly drew out four hundred litres of prana soaked water from his own body and casually stopped the flaming tornado redirecting the rotating winds by use of a barrier of water and extinguishing the flames.

The water was warmed up by the flames so Shirou decided to go all the way and convert the water into steam. Channelling prana into his bracelet he converted the steam into acid and sent the acid towards the group of homunculus. Stepping into the acidic mist he walked forward. Almost immediately he noticed the homunculus trying to blow the mist away by use of wind spells. Unfortunately for the two homunculus whose element happened to be wind he felt the ripples and sent out fast blasts of water.

He felt the attempts against his mist stop at once. The pair of false humans either dead or too damaged to continue he strolled forward under the cover of the acidic mist yet not breathing it in. Sensing the ripples from the homunculus who entered his field of death he walked forwards forming a pick out of ice and brought it down straight through her skull. She almost looked comical as her red eyes widened at the figure that appeared in front of her then she slumped down never to see anything again.

Shirou exhaled, he wasn't a fan of killing but the fact that they were homunculus made it easier. Mass produced and expendable with no will of their own, he was doing them a service and freeing them from their indebtedness to the Einzbern family. He was simply disposing of weapons.

Fire erupted from the ground around them and Shirou jumped backwards. As he jumped backwards he was cornered by another of the white haired red eyed girls who had somehow managed to track him through the ice. She charged at him with an axe moving at speeds far beyond human. Shirou merely kicked the snow on the ground into her face and then punched her right in the sternum with a bone shattering blow causing her to fly backwards and struggle to breathe. At this point he realised that his mist was being dispersed by a wind element user. Sighing he just decided to let it happen walking over to the weakly struggling homunculus and with one swift kick to the head and one minor application of runes he exploded her skull.

The mist suddenly cleared and Shirou was treated to the sight of the homunculus having multiplied where ten once stood now there were twenty. All of them had white hair and red eyes and all of them were staring at Shirou with battle ready expression.

"There's still time to surrender," Shirou said, once again putting his hands in his pockets ignoring the two dead homunculus on the ground. "If you value your lives at all you will walk away from this battle." He waited for their reply.

The one in front wielding what seemed to be some form of lantern stepped forward looking impassively at him. "Attack," was the only word she said.

Shirou sighed and started shooting highly pressurised blasts of water all of which were either blocked or dodged by the girls he was facing. Wraithlike shapes flew out of the lantern towards Shirou but in an instant his desert eagle was released and the lantern had exploded. Arrows flew towards Shirou but he redirected them using the water from the mist that he had condensed when it was blown away.

The ground beneath him opened up to swallow him but he jumped and manipulated the water in his own body to send him clear of the pit. A ripple of prana and Shirou shielded manipulating the snow on the ground into a makeshift wall.

While the wall was up he immediately found himself flanked by two sword wielding homunculus taking one step back he used his glove on the hand on the one in front manipulating her arm in an instant to lash back and decapitate the homunculus that was a bit behind. She paused in shock over what she had done and Shirou stepped forward striking her in the face and condensing water into an icicle that he directed so that she impaled herself on the way down.

Seeing the magic false humans preparing another barrage Shirou beat them to it sending a wave of water at them. Putting his hand to the ground Shirou used his magic to heat up the snow causing it to start to melt. The Einzbern homunculi were truly fearsome. Kiritsugu had once stated that they were far above most magi and it showed. Their combat skills were excellent and the magic that they had flung at him so far would have killed any enforcer or exorcist that had gone against them.

Unfortunately for them Shrirou was not just a magus. He has fought Dead Apostle Ancestors and regularly throws down against Arcueid. Teleporting behind the homunculus that controlled the wind earlier he pointed his gun at her and ventilated her cranium. He fired two more bullets at the other homunculus but they were blocked by one of them wielding a hammer. The bullets exploded against the hammer but the weapon stood firm.

Suddenly a hail of icicles came from the side. Shirou once again deflected the icicles by using his water noticing as he did that the water froze immediately upon contact. Seeing the hammer wielding girl charging towards her he spat into her eyes turning the saliva into acid as he did so. As she covered her eyes he hit her with a piercing blast of water right through the chest. He then grabbed her hammer out from her hands and with a swing finished her off.

Shirou once again blocked another volley of those icicles but this time he unfortunately dodged into the path of a rock. Skidding backwards he felt the bones in his arm snap. Hitting the rock and using the forth magic to turn it to dust he immediately pumped prana into Avalon and used the water into his body to set the bone.

He barely had any time to do so as a wave of flame came at him and he was forced to dodge once again. He teleported in the direction of the flame wave and had to duck underneath the swing of a halberd that was braced to take his head off. As his circuits spun and water leapt out to devour the halberd and flame wielder he found himself hoping that Nine and Kiritsugu were having a better time.

xxx

Nine was having a great time. When his master had commanded him to find the research he had initially feared it would be boring. Not that he would have complained if it was. These notes were important for the survival of his sister. His sister was a lot more complicated than the Piece of Chaos that spawned him and if his master believed that he required the notes to fix her then who was he to judge?

His master meant the world to him and if he cared about his sister then Nine would do the best he possibly could for her. It didn't matter if he would much rather be fighting the homunculus outside with his master, in this case as in all cases his duty came first. Which was why it was such a pleasant surprise to run into a group of homunculus guarding the workshops.

Nine was physically and magically weaker than his master and he had heard tales of the Einzbern prowess in creating golems. So he acted fast and killed the first of the homunculus when her back was turned piercing through her neck and devouring her. Jaws sprouted from his body and tentacles dragged her inside the chaos to be assimilated.

Then disaster struck when Nine had eaten the homunculus he had underestimated how tasty the being would be to him. As such he made a small noise in contentment which alerted the rest to his position. There were three other of the Einzbern golems and they were all incredibly proficient. However Nine had upon multiple occasions requested a spar with Shirou, Arcueid or Sumire in order to increase his combat facilities and better serve his master. The one melee was killed when she overextended into his currently liquid body and his currently needle thin fingernails pierced her eyes and entered her brain.

The two others were harder as one wielded some form of mystic code that shot out damaging lasers and the other one controlled a puppet like dog that was made out of metal and was both fast and enduring. Unfortunately they could do a lot of damage to somebody with his composition and he was forced to go on the defensive. It took five minutes of bobbing and weaving around the lasers and the mechanical dog before he was able to take the opening and close the distance. In an instant he had engaged the one with the mystic code that controlled the mechanical dog and he turned to liquid dodging her strike and cut her throat. Then it came down to the one last homunculus with the laser. He had wasted enough time with the others so he shed his appearance as a butler and summoned tentacles, mouths and claws to chase down the retreating homunculus who was backing up while firing her lasers at him.

She didn't stand a chance Nine shambled forward and engulfed the lone homunculus dodging the lasers by tracking her hands. For all the incredible magic circuits bestowed upon her at her creation she just didn't stand a chance against somebody of Nine's ferocity. The remains of both Homunculi were devoured and their mystic codes stored for dissemination later by his master.

As he strode into the workshop determined to strip all the knowledge on behalf of his master he idly hoped that his master's father was doing just as well.

xxx

Kiritsugu slunk through the empty halls of Einzbern castle opening up various doors checking for hi. Despite his skills he was aware that he was the weakest of this assault team. Einzbern Homunculi were tough, easily as strong as all but the strongest of magi. While not quite on the level of some of the tougher Dead Apostles Kiritsugu really didn't fancy his chances against a bunch of them. But that was not the point of his being there. His job was to get in convince Illya to leave and then to get them both out of there while his son and his pet abomination raised havoc.

Kiritsugu was against stealing of the research as it would likely cause the Einzberns to come after them with a vengeance but Shirou was correct in saying that it would help Illya. Homunculi often were tampered with and who know what could have happened to Illya in the time he wasn't here. Plus if Shirou does enough damage hopefully they will cut their losses. It was a slim hope but he resolved to barrel forward regardless. Opening up the last door on the corridor he was suddenly without warning confronted by the sight of his daughter.

The sight was so sudden Kiritsugu was struck speechless. Illya lay upon her bed just staring at the ceiling. Upon the door opening she looked to see Kiritsugu and she now lay there with her mouth open. Raising a hand up to her pale cheeks she slowly pinched herself. Kiritsugu stopped just standing there and went towards her. Tears slowly welled up her in her eyes and she leapt into Kiritsugu's arms.

"You came, I knew you would come," she wept, "I didn't give up on you daddy. I was waiting."

"I know Illya," Kiritsugu said his voice a little hoarse, "I'm sorry I couldn't come sooner. Acht prevented me from taking you. But don't worry I'm getting you out of here. We're going home."

"I'm afraid it won't be that easy," a voice came from behind and Kiritsugu turned to see the aged, white haired figure Jubstacheit von Einzbern looking easily more furious than he had ever seen him. There was a fire he had never seen before in the old man's eyes and he felt an impending pressure that indicated that whatever came next would not be easy.

 **Author Note So here is the first chapter of the invasion of Germany Arc. I would just like to once again clarify Einzbern homunculus are tough. Even their failures are considered superior to magi and their strongest can even reach servant level. Sella and Leysrit have not been created yet as this takes place three and a half years before the grail war. For the record I would like it to be said that Nine does not in any way look like Sebastian from Black Butler.**

 **HPfan 7-8 Yup.**

 **Pepebomb If you're talking about [The world over heaven] then yes. You're tripping death flags on the second half of your sentence though.**

 **Rangle Altrouge may show up in future. However she is not somebody who Shirou or anybody sane would go out of their way to meet.**

 **sandmanwake Sorry if I came off to harsh. I do try to avoid most anime tropes if possible. How good a job I do is debatable. Blame Nasu for making so many interesting female characters. Originally I wanted Nrvnqsr to join the troupe but I couldn't quite write it #only partially joking.**

 **The Rupture Honestly Merem seems pretty chill he'd probably want to examine Shirou's mystic codes. Zelretch is always watching if he wasn't then technically the timeline wouldn't exist.**

 **Oblivion168 Honestly he created a vampire that has no side effects and only about thirty percent of the perks. Though she is gaining more perks over time.**

 **KRKing I don't understand if the character is unrelated to the nasuverse how would he join him. This isn't a crossover. By this point Shirou has had basically all the allies that he would ever need. I don't need an OC and if I was going to include one at this point I would just have to work around the character. I'm sorry but my answer is no.**

 **As for your question about summons. Technically the Avalon that Shirou possesses isn't linked to Artoria. It is owned by him. Yes he would enjoy the company of both Mysterious Heroine x and Alter.**

 **Read and Review please.**


	14. A Rainful victory

**Kiritsugu**

Kiritsugu considered his options. He was hugging his daughter and only two metres away standing in the doorway was Jubstacheit Von Einzbern the man who kept him from his daughter and an incredibly dangerous mage. He was in the man's own castle and he had to protect Illya. Right there Kiritsugu cursed the fact that Illya's bedroom was in the middle of the castle. If it was closer to the outside then he could have just jumped out the window and got to Shirou who could have fought off the remaining homunculi while he protected Illya. As it was he would have to both face the old man and any backup he would have all while protecting Illya. He couldn't even carry Illya using time alter as it would cause damage to her body.

"So you have showed your face here after I explicitly forbade you from returning." The old man Acht examined Kiritsugu. "Even worse you attack and kill many of my creations." Kiritsugu had never seen the old man look this furious before. "No you'll not be allowed to leave here. But still I do not wish to do battle in this room and obviously neither do you. While you will lose your daughter I will lose a descendant of my prized creation. That is not something I want to risk." He exited the door. "Follow me," he called out from the hallway.

Kiritsugu left after him but before he exited the room he turned back to Illya. "Outside there's a really strong person. If you can get to him he'll protect you." At that he left the room to follow Acht.

Trailing down the hallway after the white haired old man Kiritsugu subtly checked the weapons that he had on him his Calico was fully loaded and his contender was ready. He thought about attacking Acht now but disregarded that thought immediately as he was still too close to Illya's room and he didn't want her to get caught up in the fight. Acht took a flight of stairs down and stepped into a door on the left. Apprehensive but with no other option Kiritsugu followed him into the room.

The room he found himself in was massive and had runes placed all over the walls. Kiritsugu's eyes darted from side to side trying to analyse those runes but to no avail as they were just too numerous.

"Don't bother," the old man said. "Those runes are just for durability. This is a testing room for the homunculus I create. I have no need for any extra advantages." Jubstacheit looked at Kiritsugu with scorn. "You have stayed at this castle for years. I know all of your tactics including that little mystic code you use to such effect. I am not arrogant to say this but the moment you appeared before me you had no chance."

Kiritsugu kept silent but it seemed the old man was not done talking. "I shall tell you my secret as there is absolutely no way for you to survive." He smiled with pride discussing the Einzberns research. "I am a homunculus as you know. Most homunculi are created with an overriding set of memories and pseudo-magic crests. I was however an experiment created by the Einzbern two hundred and fifty years ago. The experiment was to see the effects of multiple magic crests and memories concentrated into a single homunculus. As you can see it was quite a success. Over seventy sets of memories and crests went together to make me as I am."

Kiritsugu's eyes widened hearing this, his stoic façade almost breaking. If what Acht said was true he was truly facing a monster. He almost reached towards his Thompson Contender nervously but restrained himself. Acht said he was aware of the mystic code then it is safe to assume he is wary of it. Not to mention if he truly possesses that many mystic crests then he can sacrifice a crest to ensure the kill. He had no preparatory time and he was fighting an enemy whose weakness he didn't know. Kiritsugu settled down for the hardest fight of his life.

"I see you are ready," the old man said sounding almost indifferent. "Then let us begin."

With an ungodly flood of prana the world warped and the battle begun

 **Illya**

Illya was having mixed emotions right now. Her father was here, he didn't abandon her. But he was going against grandfather and Illya knew how strong grandfather was. Illya however knew what to do. The last words that her father gave her were to escape the castle and find the strong person that could protect her. Illya jumped towards her closet. Many years before she had dreamed her father would show up and take her away and she had maintained a suitcase that she would pack full of her dresses and a single stuffed toy left over from her mother, Mr. Snugglesbern a high class bear. She rifled through her wardrobe and in under thirty seconds had thrown together all of her stuff into the suitcase. Opening the unlocked door she raced through the corridors and down the stairs.

Coming to the entrance hall she was greeted by the sight of two homunculi wielding halberds who remained unmoving by the doors. "Lady Illyasviel," the one on the left said. "Please leave and return to your room there is a disturbance on the grounds outside." As she said that there was a tremendous crack and the castle shook but the homunculi didn't react. Illya squirmed at that, she was so close to her goal but she was stopped. She thought about fighting her way through but she had no experience and her grandfather would be very angry if she attacked the homunculi.

"So you are Lady Illyasviel," a voice suddenly came from behind her causing Illya to squeak and the homunculi to stiffen. "I had expected you to look older. Oh well I suppose you want to be going outside." Illya turned to see a smiling man in a black butler suit. "I suppose I should help you out with that.

The two homunculi stepped forward pointing their halberds, "Surrender," they said in unison.

The butler suited man just sighed, "Really so many amateurs." His smile widened. "Let me guess, you were their so-called failure projects. They placed you at the entrance because they rightly believe you would be less than useless against my master outside. You know," he continued, "If you were to surrender I'm sure my master would take care of you. You don't have to throw your life away."

The first homunculi just charged swinging her halberd at him. "Damn," the butler sighed and Illya couldn't help but feel he was genuinely sad about this. In no time a flash of light appeared piercing the charging homunculi through the heart. The butler put down the mystic code that was suddenly in his hand and moved flowing around the halberd of the other homunculi and piercing her neck with a black knife extending from his hands.

He then turned back to Illya and held out his hand. "Shall we go milady," he said.

"Who are you?" asked Illya stunned.

"Oh how rude of me," the man replied. "I am Nine, a humble servant of your brother, the one outside."

"I have a brother," Illya said flummoxed.

"Kiritsugu didn't tell you," Nine responded. "Kiritsugu saved him from a fire years ago and he grew into a very powerful magus.

Illya passed him her bag and Nine opened the door and strode through it Illya trailing behind. What she saw almost made her sick. Homunculi lay dead and dying on the floor. There were over twenty which was the bulk of the Einzbern fighting forces. Only eight still stood and they were being rapidly worn down by the teenager fighting them. As she watched he shot a beam of water piercing through the leg of one of the homunculi and then decapitated it with an axe he had picked up as it fell over.

"Master Shirou," Nine called from beside her and the man turned towards the butler. "We have successfully retrieved Lady Illyasviel and acquired the research." At this Illya gaped, steal research from the Einzberns, are they crazy. That will get all of them to come after them. The thought that research was stolen also seemed to drive the homunculi into a rage. One came charging towards Nine only to have a beam of water pierce it through the head.

"Don't take your eyes off the battle," the red headed teen said and Illya for the first time in a long time felt that things would be all right.

 **Jubstacheit Von Einzbern**

The walls of the training ground were littered with bullets and shrapnel. He had taken serious wounds in his legs that if not for his healing magic would have probably led to the loss of the leg. In addition he had lost fifteen percent of his magic circuits due to that damnable mystic code. He knew exactly how it worked and he still got caught by it. Despite having caught the magus killer in the perfect trap and leaving no room for him to plan ahead or escape he still had dealt great damage to him.

The worst thing was that when he died he had that damnable smile on his face as if he still knew something or had one more trick up his sleeve. He hated that, it made him feel as if he had instead lost everyting. Stepping out of the room he quickly headed up to Illyasviel's room. He wanted to speak to her as soon as possible to see how this affected her. However when he opened up the door she was gone.

Now starting to run he headed downstairs barely noticing the two dead failed homunculi by the door. He opened up the doors and was confronted by the awful sight. Dead bodies were everywhere years and years of work to create perfect homunculi and they were all slaughtered. Then he saw them. Illyasviel was there but she wasn't alone. There were two figures with her. The first was a black-haired butler and he was carrying a suitcase. The second was a red-headed teenager and he was calmly washing the blood from his hands, water moving by the use of magecraft.

"Who did this," he said his voice thunderous. The red headed teenager looked up and examined him and he seemed to examine him for a moment.

He noticed Illyasviel burst into tears. "Daddy," she sobbed. The butler went to comfort her. "He kil...," at this the young homunculus seemed to reach her limit and she devolved into incoherent sobs.

The teenager turned back to stare at him for a brief moment and then his face contorted into a rictus of fury. His features contorted and Acht had to fight his body not to take a step back. "Nine," the child said, "take Illya and leave."

"As you wish master," the butler said. "What will you be doing while I'm gone."

"I'm going to test out a new spell I've just finished. Now leave."

Acht said a few words in German and the ice rose up forming a wall blocking the retreat off for the butler and Illya. No sooner had he done that then the wall was destroyed by a scalding wave of water emanating from the boy. At that signal the butler picked up Illyasviel in his arms and ran.

He tried to stop them by casting a spell of binding but he was forced to abort it when icicles shot towards him at terrifying speeds. He had to reinforce his arms to defend himself and even then he felt chips of ice cut his skin.

The boy now stood against him with his hands in his pockets. For a moment Acht marvelled at his cold and professional look that was so much like Kiritsugu's. For the moment the boy seemed content to just stand there doing nothing so Acht decided to take advantage. You know there is no chance of you winning hand over the girl and I will let you join the family in recompense and work off the debt from killing my creations. You appear to be an accomplished magus. Work with us and help us recover the third and you will be rewarded. There is no need for you to end up like Kiritsugu.

At this the boy just chuckled, "You know the world is so big. Every day brings new experiences and sights. Before today I had never heard a dead man talk." At this the boy straightened up and disappeared from his sight. Acht looked around wildly only to receive a crushing blow on his back. If he hadn't reinforced his body his spine would have snapped in two instantly. As it was he managed to correct his fall into a stumble and he snapped his arm up and with a quick German phrase lightning was shot towards the youth.

The youth didn't even flinch as a shield of water appeared in front of him and redirected the lightning. "Pure water," the boy remarked, "is an excellent insulator." At his words the shield dispersed and reformed into three streams of water that sped towards Acht.

"It's simple I can do this," the old man thought inside his head, "he tried to summon up a wall of ice but was shocked when ice rose up from the ground to attack him instead and he was forced to try to dodge both forms of hydrogen dioxide. He was unsuccessful at that and took another two glancing blows that caused his shirt to become red with his own blood. Another quick application of healing magic and the wounds sealed over.

He looked up at the boy to see him looking not angry but almost bored. Taking advantage of the boy's seeming nonchalance he activated the mystic code at his side. The exact one that brought Kiritsugu down.

This particular mystic code looked like a golden figurine when not in use. When in use it would transform into a six foot tall indistinct figure with the ability to change its shape and size. It would then lock onto the caster's target and would relentlessly hunt them down. It had incredibly high anti-magic woven into the shell and was extremely fast. When it caught up to the person it would turn to liquid and smother them. Acht used this as his trump card.

The golden man sprouted from his hand and leapt towards the young man. Moving incredibly fast it sprang towards him and was immediately surrounded by water. Acht blinked, if the water was made of prana it would dissipate when it touched the gold figure. The fact that it didn't meant that it was real water. But where on earth did it come from. The minor then walked towards the water and put his hand on it and the entire watery construct froze.

Sighing he stepped towards Acht and then he began to talk. "You know at first I wanted to make you suffer for killing Kiritsugu, to slowly wear you down and let you bask in despair at the thought of fighting a magician. Yeah I'm a magician," he said upon seeing Acht's wide eyes. "I'm telling you this because you're not going to survive the next minute." He continued, "Then I decided to stall for Illya to get out of range. But I think that Nine has probably done a sufficient job right now. Now," he paused and he looked like he was contemplating for a while. "Now I'm going to try out the new spell I was advised to finish," he grinned at Acht and the old man could see the malice concealed beneath a surface smile.

He raised his hand, "[Amessunu Istenis]," he intoned.

 **Shirou**

He had got the name from Gilgamesh and while he didn't understand it he trusted the man wouldn't deliberately screw him over with names. "Although we are going to have a talk about warning me about future deaths when I get back to Fuyuki," he thought to himself.

The spell was the final evolution of the [Poseidon's Eye] and [Skadi's Frozen Heart] spells. What it did was spread his prana in a massive area about five hundred metres and convert all of the air in it instantly to pressurised water. The air would still look like air but anybody who breathed it in would drown if they weren't already crushed by the tons of water that suddenly appeared and pressed in from all sides. The one concept of the air that Shirou didn't change was that it couldn't be swum through. And the one limitation is that it would not spread out overly. Essentially it placed everybody in a high pressure bubble of air that behaved exactly like water.

He looked over at Jubstacheit. He wanted to hate the man but tight now he just felt empty. He could almost feel sorry for him in this situation. He was instantly crushed as his body despite being tough could not adapt to the sudden pressure of one hundred atmospheres. The man didn't even know what hit him. Shirou was tough and could dive to astonishing depths and even he gave himself time to adjust whenever that spell was used. Looking at the dead man Shirou felt no satisfaction. He stayed for a while under the water where he had an excuse if his eyes were wet.

After about three minutes of preventing the bubble from being destroyed by the world. Shirou relented and let it be destroyed. The water bursting outwards before slowly turning back to air completely destroyed the remains of the Einzbern mansion and Shirou let it carry him away from the now ruins. He came to rest about two kilometres away and he just lay on the grass for a while.

He didn't know if he slept or if he was just out of it but the next thing he took notice of was Nine simply sitting by him. Illya was crying while holding him and he was whispering reassurances to her. Saying that her father loved her and it was not her fault but the entire time he was staring with a face full of concern at Shirou.

Shirou gave him a smile that was made of glass and Nine smiled back a false smile. For the moment both of them would pretend they were alright. Shirou struggled to his feet and joined in the three way hug and for the moment the three of them just sat there and ignored the world around them and the ruins of the Einzbern family in the distance.


	15. Tide Passes 2 (I ran out of puns)

**Shirou**

Shirou hated funerals. Unfortunately upon recovering Kiritsugu's body he had been forced to help arrange one. Luckily his dad's body had sustained miraculously little damage aside from being dead, most likely from the reinforced room he had died in. Fortuitously Taiga's grandfather took over most of the duties so Shirou didn't have to. Shirou had asked for as small a funeral as possible. Kiritsugu was immensely practical and he could care less about what Japanese culture had to say about the proper way to prepare somebody for the afterlife. Shirou despite deeply loving his father saw no reason to attend. It wasn't as if the priest was going to go and tell everyone about the various things that Kiritsugu did in his life.

He actually quirked a smile at the thought of the priest reciting Kiritsugu's life story. In fact now that he thought about it maybe he could write out an altered version of Kiritsugu's life story as a work of fiction. He could imagine his dad's response to that. He would most likely give Shirou the deadpan stare he did whenever Shirou did something that went against the common sense of man or spat on a normal person's sense of logic. Then he would smile showing that he never did regret taking care of Shirou.

Shirou had attended the standard cremation of course. He also made sure to take every single bone not even allowing Taiga or her family to take a single one. He got into a minor skirmish with Arcueid over one of the bones and it was only an expert suckerpunch and the assistance of Sumire that helped him momentarily fend off the White Princess and retrieve the final bone. Then he got home and made sure to completely and without fail destroy every single one of the bones till not even scraps remained. He also destroyed the rest of the origin bullets as Shirou wasn't going to use them because they went against his fighting style so he would rather they not exist at all. He could probably survive them as conceptual weapons were not very effective against him but he didn't want to risk the destruction of his magic circuits.

Besides the funeral the past two weeks was spent getting Illya settled. The girl was quite depressed for a few days after Kiritsugu's death. But it seemed she bounced back a few days later with the help of Shirou. The one thing that brightened up Shirou's day was seeing her constantly overwhelmed by the new people she was meeting. First it was the young sort of but not really dead apostle Satsuki, then the Dead Apostle Ancestor Sumire, then the True Ancestor Arcueid. Each time had led to a look of shock on his sister's face. He momentarily regretted the fact that he had already informed his sister that he was a magician and that he couldn't suddenly spring that on her.

Shirou himself was also recovering from the death of his father. Even though he was mentally prepared for Kiritsugu dying on this mission it had still hurt him. It hurt far more than he had ever been hurt before. The deaths of his parents when he finally remembered them were muted by time and the foggy haze that surrounds a child's brain. The death of all the Tohno's hurt mainly because it was a sign of his failure. That good people could die and that potential could be snuffed short. His dad dying was an acknowledgement that he would never greet his father in the morning, never cook for him, never sit down with him and hear his stories, never see his reaction when he went out and did something stupid. He shook himself out of that.

Truthfully he had also been busy during that time trying to decipher the Einzberns' research. Many nights he had stayed up late trying to understand the Einzbern's analysis so he could find out what was wrong with his sister. Unfortunately the results from the research weren't good. Illya had been tampered with in order to bring out the fullest potential of her body giving her even more magic circuits than himself.

This advantage came at a cost however. Her body was continuously breaking down and within four or five years it would break down completely. After sifting through the Einzbern's research he had found a log of the changes that were made to her. Unfortunately that was where the good news ended. The Einzbern were apparently disinterested in how to fix their alterations. Their method seemed to be that if the alteration didn't work to build another homunculus. He immediately ceased thinking about those scum.

Shaking himself out of his thoughts he moved himself through the ocean depths. Sumire had advised him to come out here as a way to calm his head and to get away from it all. Sumire was correct in this case. The ocean was black all around him and he pulsed minute amounts of prana as a form of echolocation. He adjusted his internal water pressure and moved gracefully through the haunting environment. There were small pinpricks of light from the occasional underwater creatures that performed photosynthesis. It was a place of stillness and it was intensely eerie to experience.

The notes were currently useless to him. While he copied them down into a digital format he had no desire currently to make a homunculus. However they probably had value to others. More specifically if there was a mage that was specialized in the creating or altering of human bodies then they would probably gladly take a portion of the Einzbern's research in exchange for fixing Illya.

He reached into the water that composed almost all of his body and shot out of the midnight zone. A normal human would get decompression sickness but Shirou had long figured out how to manipulate the pressure in his body to avoid that end. He let his mind work while he headed towards the surface. When he reached the surface and his body pressure damn near equalized he teleported into the living room and was surprised to see the sight of people clustering around a solitary visitor. Arcuueid was relaxing on the chair opposite the guest and Illya was talking to the man. Seeing who it was Shirou's face grew stormy.

In his dining room Gilgamesh sat sipping tea. Nine having evidently decided it was rude to let a guest go thirsty. Deciding against tactfulness Shirou walked forward and said what he was thinking. "Gilgamesh did you see that Kiritsugu would die."

Illya gasped at that and shot an almost betrayed look towards the golden man. Gilgamesh however ignored the look and set down his cup of tea.

"Yes," he said ignoring the look of pain and shock on Illya and the trembling hands of Shirou indicating his rage. "I also saw that you would die, that your sister would die and that your battle would cause Germany to be wiped out. I'm not a god Shirou. I am not omniscient and nor will I use my powers to dictate the exact manner in which everybody lives. Despite my advice and warnings there was still a chance that Kiritsugu would return from this mission alive."

Shirou exhaled in relief. He didn't want to hate Gilgamesh. He was one of the few people Shirou got on well with and Shirou genuinely liked him despite Gilgamesh's assurances that they would fight to the death one day.

"Wait a minute," Shirou said, "so why are you only coming to my house now. Does it have something to do with Kiritsugu's death?"

"Yes," Gilgamesh said, "Kiritsugu and I fought against each other in a war held here seven years ago. That very conflict lead to the Fuyuki fire and the destruction of much of Fuyuki. Me appearing before him could have lead to some awkward moment."

"Let me guess," Shirou said with a look of minor disgust. "A magus trying to reach the root."

"Yes and no," Gilgamesh responds. "While the war was started by three magus families it would not have been possible without the intervention of the wielder of the second magic."

At this Arcueid gasped, "Zelretch helped cause the Fuyuki fire."

"Again, yes and no," Gilgamesh picked up his tea and took a sip. "He helped create the system whereby heroes of the past could be incarnated into a servant container to fight over a wish granting device." Gilgamesh smiled ruefully, "however the system has been tried four times and four times has it failed. I can't tell you why the fire was caused specifically unfortunately. I am somewhat constrained at this point."

"However," Gilgamesh fashioned him with a stare. "You should be aware that the war will most likely begin again in a few years. During the war is when you and I will fight."

"Sounds somewhat inconvenient," Shirou joked. "With all those battles going on will we get any screen time at all?"

Gilgamesh snorted, "I'm sure you'll find a way. The other thing I came to tell you about was to give you a direction and a warning. First the warning is such. Magi today despite being weak and cowardly are not stupid. There are Einzbern at Clocktower and upon falling out of contact with the main house will try to track you down or incite the Clocktower to hunt you down. After all if you wiped out their entire family what is to stop you from hunting down others?"

"If the dogs of the magus organization come after me, they won't like what happens," Shirou replied earnestly. While he didn't like to kill, he also didn't like most magi and a group of magus targeting him and his family was unacceptable.

Gilgamesh drained the last of his tea. "Maybe I'm spending too much time with you if you're calling people dogs now. Anyway," Gigamesh said getting back on topic; the second is a way to fix the homunculus. Currently there is only one person in the world who has the skill to fix your sisters natural lifespan." Gilgamesh's hand disappeared into ripples and a moment later it was back with a folder in his hand. He handed the folder to Shirou and Shirou immediately started reading.

"You're joking right," Shirou said his face taking on an unreadable expression.

"I'm afraid not. Your best choice is the foremost expert in puppet creation Touko Aozaki," Gilgamesh replied and Shirou felt like he was smiling at him despite wearing an inexpressive face.

"I'm not a puppet," muttered Illya looking down on the floor.

"Of course you're not," Gilgamesh replied smiling at the girl. "Why some of my best friends were created rather than born."

Gilgamesh seemed to reminisce for a moment and then he stood up. "I'll leave you to it. By the way," he said. "I suppose I have held off introducing myself properly for too long. I am Gilgamesh. The King of Heroes. The first hero from whom all other legends flow." A horrifically intimidating presence filled the room and Shirou got the impression of absolute power. It was as if he was not facing a single man but as if the entire world had decided to make him his enemy. Illya was trembling a bit and even Arcueid looked a bit taken back. "You are still nowhere near strong enough." The presence faded. "Prepare yourself well Shirou. You have potential."

At that Gilgamesh exited the room.

xxx

 **Rin**

Rin Tohsaka was having a bad day. She had woken up late and had to rush to school. Then when in school she realised that she had forgotten to pack her lunch and so had to spend the majority of her school day hungry. Then that ass Shinji had been up to his usual tricks and she had found herself annoyed and hungry throughout the schoolday.

Things hadn't gotten much better when she got home. She had broken a jewel that she had been working on and Kirei was also being an ass. So here she was sitting in her family's workshop reading through some of her families prior notes. One thing that she was thankful was that Inke left her alone again today. She immediately rebuked herself for thinking that. She had heard that his father was dead. She wanted to go and offer her condolences tell him that she also understood the pain of losing her parents but she had no idea of how to begin that conversation.

They both had an antagonistic relationship. Rin had no idea how it had started but he had become the one person that could make him lose her composure and constantly got under her skin. He seemed to enjoy needling her to the extent that sometimes she just wanted to punch him in his smug face. And his constant petty magic tricks were annoying he wanted to see what would ever happen if he met Zelretch or the Blue. How would his assertions that he was a magician hold up then?

She smiled and shook her head dismissing the humorous image from her head. Suddenly she felt somebody lightly tap against her bounded field as if to announce their presence. Putting the notes away she exited the workshop and headed to the front door. Stepping outside she was confronted by two magi.

Instantly she was on guard. The Clocktower very rarely sent any of its people here. Moreover the people appeared to be enforcers which meant that they only came if there was a clear and present danger. In the back of her head Rin silently hoped that she hadn't become the danger.

"Miss Tohsaka," the one on the left stated. "I am Cornelius Alba of the sealing designate enforcers. I bear the rank of brand in the clocktower. I have come to this land because I believe that living here somewhere is the new sealing designate Kiritsugu Emiya."

Rin swallowed her throat dry at the thought of a sealing designate hiding out in her city. "Excuse me," she said inspecting Cornelius with a determined look in her eye, "can you tell me what he has done to warrant a designation. I would like to know whether he is dangerous to the population and myself?"

Cornelius smiled wider, "Of course," he said, "after all you should know what this guy who might be living right in your backyard did." He paused, "He destroyed almost the entirety of the Einzbern family in a single day."

At that though Rin felt a deep pit form in her stomach and she barely noticed Cornelius and his partner walk off. She closed the door and slumped down into the nearest chair and just stayed very still.

 **Author Note Sorry this chapter is very short but I have board exams in two and a half weeks and thus I have to spend all my time studying. The many downsides of being an aspiring accountant. I'll probably only be able to have a new story out by the 27th.**

 **Saitosa [ _Š _-šú-nu iš-te-niš]__ would be the actual inscription. The language is cuneiform the source of writing created by the Sumerians. It comes from the poem titled [ _e-nu-ma e-liš]_ or Enuma Elish as Gilgamesh pronounces it and the line describes the mixing of salt and fresh water at the start of the world. **

**EternityDragon2610 Yeah I dislike most purely crack fics. I try to mix humor and serious moments. That's why a lot of series have a straight man. If nobody takes anything seriously it just devalues the whole process. And yes Kiritsugu did die with a smile on his face.**

 **Oblivion168 He has the crest. However Illya comes with a built in crest being a homunculus and Shirou isn't sure about implanting a new one.**

 **Guest Yup soon**

 **The Rupture I both love and hate it when reviewers are faster than me. On the plus side it shows that I have created a story that has sufficient narrative realism that people can guess where I'm going. On the other hand I live in fear that they are going to get a twist before I finished writing it. Carry on good sir and keep me on my toes.**

 **Redripper666 Yeah that's always the risk. Unfortunately I can't promise that people won't die in future. My author integrity wont let me.**

 **TJG Is that a reference to Haiyore!Nyarko-san. If it is I must say that while I like the show despite its many failings. The tone would be significantly off.**

 **KRKing I'm sorry I don't give spoilers.**


	16. A business drip

**Mifune Town (Near Touko's Hideout)**

"So that's the building," the blond vampire peered at the innocuous looking apartment that reportedly contained their target.

"Yup," Shirou replied, "Touko Aozaki is reported to have her workshop in there if your source is to be believed."

Between them a small white haired girl fidgeted looking back and forth between the two.

"No fair," she said. "How am I supposed to see the building from all the way up here at this time of night?"

The three of them sat atop a skyscraper overlooking the currently quiet city of Mifune. In the distance about three kilometres away sat the abandoned building where, according to Arcueid's contact the sealing designate Touko Aozaki was currently stationed.

"This shouldn't be a complicated operation," Shirou said pshycing himself up. "We go in, ask her to transfer Illya to a new stronger puppet body. We negotiate with a portion of the Einzbern's research and we leave. Nothing should go wrong."

Arcueid looked at Shirou contemplating. "Shirou," she mused, "I have a feeling that things are about to go very wrong."

Shirou's smile grew fixed, "I know," he replied. "Honestly I'm contemplating not taking Illya on this mission."

Illya looked up at Shirou smiling sweetly. "I know you wanted to leave me behind big brother," she said her voice dripping like honey. "But as you're bargaining with my heritage, I think it's only right that I be present to ensure that the whole Einzbern magecraft does not become obsolete."

Shirou sighed, "Alright but you will remain behind Arcueid." At Illya's slightly mutinous look he elucidated. "You are by far the least durable of all of us. For your own safety I want you to stick close behind the magic immune tank. Can you do that?"

Seeing her nod Shirou sighed and jumped from the building to the next one, the grey clothing he was wearing rendering him invisible in the black sky. In his peripheral vision he noticed Arcueid pick up Illya and carry her while jumping after him. Landing on the ground in front of the abandoned he bled off most of his momentum by moving the water in his body in the opposite direction of his landing causing him to just lightly touch down as opposed to Arcueid who left cracks in the ground.

Striding forward he examined the bounded field that surrounded the place. It was an amazing piece of work. Both hard to spot and deadly if the wrong move was made. Almost every being would take one look at this field and give up and leave. Shirou's face contorted into a bittersweet smile for a moment as he considered that his father would have just blew up the building or something like that.

Huffing to himself, Shirou focused. "There is no way to disable this bounded field. In addition we have not seen our target leave for the last few days we were in town. I'm going to destroy the bounded field. I can restore it later if our business is successfully concluded."

"Wow Shirou," Illya said. "Using the promise of recreating her boundary field as a bargaining chip to get the new body, won't that annoy her though and make her less inclined to agree."

"Possibly," Shirou admitted, "but she is a professional magus. I highly doubt she will let her feelings interfere with negotiations."

As he said that he reached out to the bounded field and destroyed it carefully saving the various concepts embedded into it so that he could restore it later at his leisure. He decided that he may even upgrade his own bounded field once this was finished. He didn't want to copy the Einzbern's bounded field straight up because it would signal his location to every aware magus in the area and he didn't want to deal with Tohsaka as a magus.

Stepping into the building his arm was grasped by Arcueid. "Shirou," she said seriously, "I have a bad feeling about this." For a moment her face scrunched up as she contemplated something. "It's not that it feels unnatural. It's almost like it feels too natural. I feel like the human order is decaying and I'm more free to use Marble Phantasm."

Shirou's eyes widened at that. Whatever phenomenon that was could not be good. He had no idea what could cause Gaia to react like this but the effect would be devastating on magecraft. Thankfully even if the effect grew worse they would be okay. Him with his magic and phantasmal body and Arcueid with her… everything should be able to steamroll their way through most of the things on the planet. Illya would be useless but it wasn't as if they were going to let her fight in the first place.

No whatever was going on in there it didn't change the fact that they needed to meet with the sealing designate. Pushing open the door Shirou stepped into the entrance room. There was no surprise in his face when he beheld the room. It was dusty and dark; clearly Touko decided that she should make the abandoned building look as realistic as possible. Arcueid followed him with Illya skittering behind the vampire a look of nervousness now present on her face. Even Shirou felt uneasy as he had the distinct feeling he was being watched.

"How's your night vision Arc," Shirou said to the True Ancestor next to him. It looks like we are going to be descending into the abyss."

"You know its good Shirou," Arcueid replied, "Are we going downstairs instead of up."

"It's where I would put my workshop, besides I can clearly feel that is where the disturbance originates from." In front of him a staircase headed up but he ignored it. Water droplets minute but uncountable appeared around the room and he closed his eyes focusing on the position of all the droplets. His eyes snapped open. "There," he said pointing towards a random part of the floor. "The trapdoor down is right there."

He walked towards the trapdoor but as he approached it he was forced to jump back as a blast of magical energy struck through the spot that he had been standing in just a minute ago. His eyes scanning the room he came across the sight of a puppet activating. The puppet was a bit taller than him about 160 centimetres and had long red hair. The puppet looked very familiar to Shirou's eyes.

"Wait a minute why does Touko Aozaki have a puppet of Aoko Aozaki." He turned towards Illya's blond bodyguard. "Tell me Arcueid is that normal sibling behaviour." Arcueid gave him such a flat look that he almost burst out laughing before she shrugged her shoulders.

The puppet lunged becoming more akin to a spider as it moved to touch Shirou. The false Aoko was very well made and moved faster than could normally be perceived. Unfortunately it had the misfortune to go up against a true magician and the last true ancestor.

The puppet was pierced by a jet of water and then crushed by the vampires thrust. Its body parts fell to the floor and flopped around trying vaguely to restore some motion. "Well that was underwhelming," Arcueid the friendly vampire said. "Hey Shirou why didn't you pick it up earlier?"

"Firstly it wasn't activated," Shirou defended himself. "Secondly, my magecraft is not as responsive as it usually is." He turned to look at Arcueid, "Did you notice that puppet was falling apart even before we destroyed it. I can still manipulate water but that's mainly due to the fact that I'm a lot closer to a phantasmal beast than a run of the mill ordinary human."

Shirou raised his head and looked Arcueid in the eye. "What I am saying is that there is absolutely no way Touko is doing this of her own free will. Something much bigger is at play here."

"Do you think she has been kidnapped," Arcueid said to the magician. At this Shirou just shrugged and moved towards the trapdoor. He attempted to lift the trap door with his water magic for a bit before giving it up as a lost cause and kicked the trapdoor in. Jumping down into the darkness below he immediately scanned the room for any other hostiles. The room was much neater than upstairs and there weren't any obvious hiding places. Arcueid jumped down carrying Illya and for a moment Shirou believed he could hear two sets off footsteps instead of one.

He swept the room with his water just to be sure and when he got no signal back he decided to ignore his feeling of paranoia for now. Heading through a door into a passageway he was followed by a silent Arcueid and a slightly shivering Illya.

They followed the grey hallway for a bit before Shirou raised his hand. "Stop," he said. "The passageway ahead is warded with countless runic traps. Anybody that were to walk down that hall would be obliterated." Shirou suddenly smiled, "Well," he said, "Almost anybody. Arcueid take the lead."

"Alright Shirou," Arcueid said cheerfully as she strolled down the passageway. Hundreds of traps activated all of them attempting to slice, burn exsanguinate, disintegrate, dissolve, drown, bury and generally make the vampire dead. Unfortunately for the traps the person they were attempting this on was an insanely powerful True Ancestor that had over the centuries developed a resistance to just about every form of magecraft under the sun. At the end of the corridor of death the only damage was to Arcueid's clothes which Shirou happily replaced and took the opportunity to ogle the beautiful walking ball of destruction to Illya's annoyance and Arcueid's apparent indifference.

"Right," Shirou said. "This job is really getting quite fun, don't you think Arc, Illya?"

Arcueid nodded her head but Illya pouted. "Big brother," she said. "I haven't been able to fight anything yet. You and Arcueid fought the puppet and Arcueid fought the corridor but I haven't gotten a chance to shine yet."

Shirou frowned, "Alright," he said. "Next challenge is yours, but Arcuied and I will step in if you can't handle it. If this place gets too dangerous for you I will send you home where it is safe."

 **Home (Where It Is Safe)**

Satsuki was enjoying a lazy night in. When Shirou had asked for help housesitting she had immediately agreed. She had nothing big on her schedule. Her boss had given her time off. Incidentally her boss was Sumire. When she had graduated she didn't know what to do with her life and she felt listless with the contrast between her everyday mundane life and the fantastical friends she met.

She was a magical being; she didn't want to work in a cubicle all day. Salvation came in the form of a letter stating that she had been accepted for a personal assistant position for the owner of nationwide sake production company.

She had been only partly surprised to find out the enigmatic owner of the company was Sumire. To be more specific the owner of the company was a lady by the name of Sumi Rie. However just because they were good friends, practically sisters, did not mean that she let her off easy. Sumire worked her to the bone showing her the ins and outs of the company and how it was managed and she often left feeling exhausted after each day.

However she also had a soft spot for Shirou so when Satsuki mentioned she was housesitting for him she gave her the time off without question. So that's how Satsuki found herself relaxing in front of the TV watching her show when the bounded field alarm went off. The bounded field only reacted to users of magecraft or those who contained sufficient mystery that weren't registered. She jumped off the couch quickly donning protective outerwear and headed for the door. She didn't get to the door before the entire door was blown off his hinges.

She jumped back to avoid the flaming wreckage and she saw two men enter the doorway.

"Hello, I am looking for Kiritsugu Em..." the blond one started and immediately stopped the sentence as he had to dive out of the way of a couch that was thrown towards him. The second one wasn't so lucky and got clipped by the couch on his way and he fell to the ground clutching his side. Satsuki immediately charged the duo but was forced to retreat as a wave of flames hit the position that she was in a few seconds ago. She attacked multiple times but the blond haired man instantly set her spot alight whenever she charged in. So far it was only the mock battles that she had with Sumire that kept her alive.

Things took a turn for the worst when the second one recovered. In his hands he held a metallic segmented object that bumped together. As soon as he waved it Satsuki had a feeling of disorientation come over her and she paused just in time for a wave of flames to wash over her.

Her last thoughts before the fiery conflagration engulfed her were her hopes that all her friends were okay.

 **Touko's Hideout (An Okay Place)**

"Should we help her," Arcueid asked looking at the little magus in concern. "She looks like she's having a hard time."

"She'll be fine," Shirou said absentmindedly scanning the room. "She has the best circuits I've ever seen. She was trained in the Einzbern's magecraft since she could walk she's got this."

"Shirou help!" Illyasviel von Einzbern yelled out running from the mass of teeth and eyes her bird familiars doing little to slow down the monstrosity. The girl had been so confident when she started and when that thing had emerged she confidently bombarded the creature using her four familiars. This however had done little to slow down the thing and Illya had spent the last ten minutes dodging and weaving through the many attempts to grab and devour her.

"I suppose the fun's over at that Arcueid," Shirou sighed. "Would you do the honours, your marble phantasm at the moment is stronger than my magecraft. Arcueid nodded and stepperd towards the mass of teeth. In an instant the creature had refocused on Arcueid and in the next instant it was shredded by the very air around it. The few remnants that survived Arcueids initial blow scurried back into the shadow to a place it could bother somebody else.

"Shirou," Illya panted out, "you meanie."

"Have you learned something Illya," Shirou said the faintest tinge of a smug smile upon his face. "Things like leave this sort of stuff to the professionals and don't take on things much stronger than you."

Striding past Illya he opened the door into the next room and was confronted by a red cat like being. "Arcueid why don't you have this one," Shirou said. "Don't worry you can easily beat it. Just stick to your strengths.

Arcueid stepped forward intent on putting the cat in its place when there was a violent sound of metal on metal and the cat disappeared.

Shirou sighed, a noise of plain unhappiness and said, "So you've finally decided to show your face. I thought if I made you wait long enough you would lose patience and appear. Your impatience is one of your many personality disorders."

"My, my so it was not incompetence but callousness that caused your sister to nearly die. Every time I hear you speak you always appear less and less impressive. Without the fourth you would be nothing but your average ordinary human and the thought terrifies you."

These words were said by a familiar green eyed youth. Then she smiled.

"On the other hand there is no increase in the chance of becoming a monster in future. Well done for not breaking and massacring humans. I'm so proud of you.

"Narbareck," Shirou said his face a blank mask, "why are you here?"

"Well I found out from one of my subordinates that the True Ancestor is looking for the oldest Aozaki." She lifted her hand to her chest. "Naturally I had to make sure there is no chance she is now regarding humans a s prey so I arrived. Also," she looked a little reluctant to say so. "My instincts were telling me something terrible was happening here. Naturally as the leader of the burial squad I had to make sure it was not happening to humanity."

"I don't believe it would be wise to try and force you back," Shirou started, "especially since we are already in such a hostile environment. So by all means come with us. Just don't expect any of us to bail you out when you inevitability bite off more than you can chew."

"Don't worry about me," Narbareck said, "I'm sure I will be the last one to die. If movies are to be believed I'm the only one making it into the sequel."

"Excuse me," Arcueid said breaking up the fight. "The feeling I get is strongest behind this door. Whatever is causing the disturbance is probably in the next room."

"Well then we better get going before we talk each other to death," Narbareck said heading for the door.

"Wait," Shirou said, "Do you have an idea of what is causing this mess.

"Narbareck stood still as stone for a moment and then she replied her voice sounding smaller than it had ever sounded before. "Yeah," she said, "but if its what I think it is then were all dead.

Without further waiting she grabbed the handle of the door and ripped it right off the hinges. Following her into the last room Shirou immediately noticed it was the cleanest and most well-mantained of all the rooms. Projects lay around the room and notes were on the tables indicating that this place similar to a workshop.

However one sight capture Shirou's eyes. Kneeling down a few metres ahead of him was Touko Aozaki. Her eyes were bloodshot and her hands were shaking. She was chanting something when she came in and the sudden appearance of Shirou and Narbarecj caused her chant to skip a beat. After a moment of her chanting more frantically she gave up. Standing up she pulled a pack of cigarettes from her jacket and lit one up.

"Ohh, Touko Aozaki," Narbareck said. "I heard the mage association were hunting you down. I wonder what they would think to know you were hidden in Mifune town all this time."

"Don't waste your breath on threatening me. Everybody in this room is already dead."

Illya looked aghast, Arcueid's eyes widened but Narbareck didn't seem surprised.

"I see," she said. "Is there no way to contain it?"

"No it's free now," Touko replied. "It should be out any…."

Touko was interrupted by a rumbling. The rumbling did not occur in the ground or in the sky but the very marrow of the group shook and space and time contorted. Shriou's circuits shook. They vibrated at such intensity that the effect was almost physical.

Its appearance was utterly unclimatic and partly inconsequential. It appeared with no fanfare, nor was it's appearacnce even necessary for one such as it.

It stood eight feet tall and was covered in fur. Even through the fur bulky muscle could be seen. Two massive ram horns sat atop its head. Its had four arms and each arm had wicked talons. It's hands were bare but wrinkled and had four fingers. Its face looked vaguely reptilian with all of its scales yet with rows of serrated teeth similar to a shark. It had yellow compound eyes and a snout like a dog and emaciated cheek bones. Lastly it gave off an aura of power and domination so strong that Shirou almost dropped to his knees.

"Careful," Narbareck muttered to him, "that things no your ordinary demon."

The creature raised its head and roared sending shockwaves throughout the world and causing time and space to stutter.

Shirou could see what Narbareck meant by the thing not being an ordinary demon.

Regular demons were benevolent to humanity and had to possess a human host to interact with the world.

But this creature had no need to possess anything. It stood there fully incarnated without a single problem yelling it's defiance at the laws of the church and man.

And right now Shirou would be prepared to bet any amount of money that thing was not going to sit them down and have a teaparty.

 **Author Note: I have finished my exams and now have a small amount of time to write. Not my easiest or best chapter but I need to get back into the swing of things and write something down.**

 **KRKing The Wolf Paladin I'm not going into Kara no Kyoukai. It's too episodic and long for me to get into. The reason why I used Cornelius Alba and his reason for trying to capture Kiritsugu is because he is a cocky shit and was involved in putting down Kiritsugu's father Norikata. Guy with him is a random OC.**

 **sandmanwake I like those two characters and I semi-regret not including them. However Nine didn't kill them. He killed two random homunculus mooks. Neither Liz nor Sella have been created yet.**

 **The Rupture Jubstacheit sent out a last message to the Einzbern family at the clocktower stating that he was being attacked by the magus killer before he confronted Kiritsugu.**

 **TJG I prefer that the dead remain dead. Otherwise I feel it undermines the story a bit.**

 **Yeah it sounded like an anime catchphrase so I just assumed it was Haiyore!. I haven't actually read the mountains of madness. I do like lovecraftian themes but I was never an avid reader of H.P Lovecraft. Maybe I'll do something lovecraftian for my third fanfic.**

 **Finder18 Yes and my own.**

 **Vault166 Actual reunion would probably involve more explosions.**

 **Please read and review. As an aside I was thinking of including a lemon/sex scene in future chapters. To do this I believe I would have to raise the rating to mature. Could somebody with the blood of an oracle please explain the content rating to me so I don't screw up and get taken down.**


	17. A floody battle

A straight rush and the creature was upon Shirou its movement appearing to be more akin to teleportation then pure speed. There was absolutely no time to dodge as the claws speared at the speed of thought towards Shirou's heart.

Fortunately Shirou had been focussing on Avalon in anticipation of the demon's imminent attack and millimetres from his heart he glowed gold and the demon's hand fell short as it was unable to enter into the fae realms.

Suddenly the demon was sent staggering two metres back as a straight right by Arcueid plunged into its chest. Shirou momentarily thought he saw a hole in the skin opening up the beast and displaying eldritch organs before with a blink of an eye it was gone. The beast lunged at Arcueid and this time matched its strength with hers. Arcueid was the loser this time as the beast managed to slice of her forearm with one of its claws before she could land her strike. A follow-up attack sent Arcueid stumbling backwards. And a blow to the back of the head sent made her momentarily lose her footing and land on the floor. All of this happened in a span of under a second.

The demon plunged its claws down towards the blond vampire when jets of water speared towards it. Countless streams of water pierced the beast their speed easily surpassing sound and the pressure comparable to the ocean depths. This however only seemed to knock the beast of balance and irritate it and its next lunge took it once again towards Shirou. A wall of ice formed with barely a thought but the creature plunged through the ice like it was paper and froze. The duration of its pause was but a second but it gave enough of a breather for a furious Arcueid to lunge at the beast slamming it through a wall and into the next room.

Shirou quickly reached towards a shaking Illya and sent her home via teleportation. Turning to the head of the burial squad he was surprise to find the usually green eyed now sported a pair of glowing eyes one pitch black and the other white like the sun. She seemed to be slightly out of breath and was unpacking some form of device. "Go on without me," she said her usual vicious tone absent replaced with a tone of utter professionalism. "That thing's a True Demon. They usually can't be beaten or driven off but with this group of people we may just manage it."

She looked at him her mismatched eyes looking rather more intimidating than usual. "Your job is to find a way we can destroy it or otherwise seal it. I'll join the vampire in the whole fighting bit now go."

Shirou turned and headed out into the other room past the Aozaki, who was now standing and analysing the conversation, and what he saw made he stop dumbstruck for a moment. Arc and the demon were exchanging blows their sheer speed rendering them almost invisible and there were visible gusts of wind from the intensity of the exchange.

It was at this point that Shirou regretted that for all the durability and strength that [Ryuujin's Perfect Body] gave him it barely improved his speed at all. He could launch a blow incredibly fast by building up water pressure in his arm and infusing mana so that he was pushing the water contained within while he attacked normally. He took note that if he survived this he was going to do something to build up his speed and reflexes. Focusing on the creature in one of the moments that it slowed down he read its history using the fourth.

"It is a Demon?" He started though that statement was tinged with uncertainty. The being that fought in front of his eyes resisted his comprehension like only one other being had ever done before. He focused his power pushing through the blockage and he was confronted with information that he couldn't understand. Again and again he tried to force the knowledge in his head but he could feel his human brain resisting this attempt to learn this knowledge.

The chimera in front of him refused to be understood and it was really starting to piss Shirou off. He stared at the creature until his eyes felt like they were on fire and his brain felt like it was being dissolved. "I am Shirou Inke," he repeated inside his head. "I am a master of the fourth magic and I am going to use it to understand this creature." The words repeated inside his skull again and again. The world grew blurry besides that statement even as his head dulled he repeated it. I ,,, Inke,,,, master,,,, magic,,,, understand,,,, creature.

 _Something broke inside his head like a pane of glass he never knew existed. Suddenly the world was so much clearer to him. He saw gravity, space and time distilled to their essence, rendered down into mere words and concepts as if the universe were a mere story in a book told by an omniscient god. The entire universe unfolded itself in front of him and he found himself disappointed. He saw the pointlessness of life, how the scenario repeated itself ad nauseum amongst countless parallel worlds. He saw beautiful unique creatures and how life was all just one trick that was mundane once it was understood. He saw the way that the creature was made and the way that the vampire was made and the way that humans were made. He idly realised he had achieved a greater comprehension of the universe and remembering a statement long ago he turned his head towards the root to the place that his life had begun._

Pain struck him. He felt like he blacked out a few moments there. But knowledge about the creature flickered through his brain. As his aching brain struggled to make sense of it he found himself paling. "We need to cut it off from the world. It's drawing shape and strength from it."

"Good let's see if we can do something about that," the voice came from his side and he jerked his head to see Narbareck unfolding an item wrapped in cloth. "I have a way to separate it from Gaia if you can stall for a bit," she continued. "I won't be able to fight so I need you to protect me."

Shirou nodded his head. This was no time to be arguing he walked in front of Narbareck and trained his eyes upon the feuding duo trying to accustom himself to the speed they were travelling at. However he got more worried as he saw the fight continue. The differences were subtle but as somebody who spent a lot of time around Arcueid it was immediately apparent.

She was changing, her attacks came with more brutality and with more unpredictability and she had stopped striking with her fists and was now clawing at the opposing monstrosity with her fingers. As worried as Shirou was for the moment it looked Arcueid was winning.

The True Demon, for that's what it was, was beyond powerful. In addition all of the damage was shapeshifted away. Hands lost grew back and changed into scaled forearm. A hole in the chest resulted in its torso melting and reforming into smooth grey skin. Even when Arcueid tore its head off the resulting head grew back into an avian variety. But it was slowing down now. Every single exchange of blows was won by Arcueid and the vampire had now begun to use her marble phantasm more and more. The creature naturally destroyed the human order around it and if Shirou hadn't created his own magical system and repeatedly convinced the world it was real he might be having a problem with his magecraft. As it was he cast and finished his spells quickly to allow for minimum degradation.

The flip side of this for the creature was it transformed Arcueid into an actual monstrosity to fight. Winds sliced it into pieces, lightning formed and tore chunks from the beast and he even saw Arcueid cause the creature to spontaneously generate with a gesture. The creature's regeneration had slowed down and now the wounds lingered. Finally Arcueid simply leant forward stuck her fingers through the creatures eye sockets and tore the head off its head.

Turning from creature Arcueid looked at Shirou. Her teeth were elongated and her eyes were glowing red. Her face was contorted into a glare and her hair waved wildly. Shirou despite his mild arousal at his friend's sudden change had more important things on his mind.

"It's not dead Arc," he shouted. But it was too late as from the body of the discarded exploded and from the corpse a figure emerged and decapitated Arcueid with a single swing of its hand. Shirou gulped as he beheld the new creature. It was over six feet tall and had two horned antlers on the top of its head. It had brown eyes and hair and it was without a doubt definitely female. In fact if Shirou had to judge he would say it was about an E-cup female the True Demon deciding that clothes were not a thing that was absolutely necessary.

Shirou's unfortunate surprise could have led to a nearly fatal incident as the beast immediately rushed him in the same manner as it had before. Once again before it reached him however it paused.

"[Alien Stomach World]," he heard a voice behind him say and the world warped. The four walls of the underground workshop disappeared to be replaced by fleshy masses tendrils protruded from the sides moving as if to grasp something. The smell changed and Shirou realised that sometime during the transition he had been plunged underwater. Quite acidy water as it was but he'd honestly swum in worse. He should probably feel sad that some places in the ocean had apparently greater acidity than this beings stomach, but he was just too overwhelmed to care at the moment.

They were in another world that was somehow inside a stomach that was used to summon the other world. Shirou was already feeling overwhelmed so he decided to table his analysis for later if there was one. Jumping back he noticed Narbareck take the lead and step in front of them.

The being, he should really address it as the woman now, shook its head gazing about in wonder of the room around it. This wonder didn't last long as it was suddenly attacked by a white blur that took a chunk of the arm. Another white blob was destroyed by the swing of her hand. However more and more of those white blobs appeared and withing ten seconds the woman was striking everywhere taking down scores of those white blobs before they touched her, the chunk missing from her arm already healed.

Shirou pulled himself together and started analysing the creature. The analysis came easier this time and he blanched at both the power of the thing and the method that it came about. Touko had not actually created it in some weird experiment gone wrong but uncovered it from its resting place where it had lain for centuries before. The worst thing was he currently had no idea of anyway to kill it.

Twice before had Shirou fought incredibly high level foes in the form of Dead Apostle Ancestors and only recently was he able to come to appreciate both how tough they were to kill.

The first one, the pirate was a testament to how even the strongest could be brought down by something unexpected. As ready to fight Sumire as he was, he wasn't prepared to take an origin bullet to the reality marble. The backlash had knocked him into the water, a vampire's natural weakness, and right out of the fight. Even so Sumire confided in Shirou that she had gone back about half an hour later and finished him off and that even underwater he was recovering.

Nrvnqsr was a trainwreck of a fight but even then he had prior knowledge of how to beat him and a True Ancestor on his side. Even then he was at his weakest having not eaten for a long time and he was technically still not dead. Shirou's original plan of sending it into space was vetoed due to cost considerations. He hadn't earned any money back then and sending stuff into space would be prohibitively expensive not to mention illegal. So Shirou had gone with the second plan and buried the jar of Nrvnqsr under the sea floor in the middle of the pacific.

Unfortunately Shirou couldn't think of a way to kill the woman in front of him. Her regeneration seemed to be on par with Arc's who Shirou noticed had not been dragged into the world. So Narbareck must be intending to capture her someway. He immediately refocused on the battle.

Things that seemed to be like nerve fibre streamed from the walls crackling with electricity. Unfortunately the creature dodged them and then charged at the young member of the church. However when the creature swung its arm it suddenly found its hand deep into the white blob that took the opportunity to strip the flesh from its body. The creature destroyed the white blob that Shirou suddenly realised was an actual leucocyte and turned towards Narbareck.

It charged again but suddenly the space between them warped and the path was blocked by tentacles that grasped at the female making Shirou feel some slight amounts of cultural awkwardness. The woman tore free and once again nerve fibres sprung from the ceiling. She made to jump but once again she was paused.

However this time was different. The woman had apparently had enough of all these obstructions as a massive wave of prana erupted from her and the world cracked.

Narbareck lost that impassive face that she had on the entire time. She raised the stomach once again and the world seemed to buckle in anticipation…. before the stomach was obliterated by the True Demon her hand crushing the stomach as well as Narbarecks hand.

Shirou recognized it as teleportation this time and not speed idly noting that for something apparently exclusive to the Age of the Gods all three in this rapidly decaying world have some form of teleportation. This thought was quickly discarded as he used the remains of the disappearing water to launch an all-out attack upon the woman causing her follow up attack on Narbareck to go off centre and only destroy her arm rather than her chest. The last of the world disappeared and Shriou once more found himself in the workshop of Touko Aozaki.

Arcueid had recovered but he really wasn't sure about her mental state and the True Demon was now eying him up.

"Man I'm really glad I got Illya out," Shirou thought to himself.

 **With Illya (At The Perfectly Safe Emiya House)**

"Man, I hope big brother is okay," Illya thought to herself as she left her room to head downstairs. While she normally would have been complaining about missing the fight, she was just glad to be away from the chimera. She was still going to get him back for making her run away from that earlier demon. Suddenly she heard a series of noises coming from the entryway.

Briskly walking towards it she came across two men standing in the entranceway and a slightly burnt Satsuki on one knee. "I'm only going to ask once more," the blond haired one with the rather dapper clothing said. "Where is Kiritsugu Emiya."

"Dead," replied Satsuki.

The man contemplated the answer for a bit before he then huffed. "Then you're useless to me," he said raising his arms.

An attack on Satsuki was something that Illya would not allow however. She quite liked the girl. She was always friendly with her and they formed an alliance of watching magical girl shows whenever her brother was not around to ruin it.

Hair curled up in her pockets took the form of four birds and her Storch Ritter opened fire. The dapper gentleman managed to cancel his spell and dodge leaving the shots to damage Shirou's wall but his companion took a shot to the shoulder. The man whipped his head towards Illya who stood in the doorway.

"An Einzbern Homunculus," he said. "So the man must be here." His face morphed into a smile. "And your type are so rare, especially now, you'll fetch a fortune."

"No," Satsuki stood up.

"What do you mean no," the man said. "You're hardly in a position to defend her. Face it you've lost. I'll make it quick."

Satsuki shook her head. "I didn't want to do this," she said. "This will probably cause some serious damage to the surroundings but as you've threatened his sister I'm fairly sure Shirou will retroactively authorise this."

"Oh one last trick up your sleeve," the man scowled. "I won't let you use it." He clicked his fingers and a small flame came out. Satsuki merely stepped to the side and watched it go past and burn a painting of Shirou's featuring a mountainous landscape.

The man stood looking at his hands. "What," he said. Next to him his partner was still clutching his shoulder but he attempted to use his mystic code to no avail. Suddenly a lot more nervous they both began backing up and then stopped.

There in the doorway stood Nine. His hands were full of grocery bags; he had evidently been busy shopping in the morning. His face however was something not usually seen on the cheerful Nine. Frankly speaking he looked pissed.

"Sorry to inform you," Satsuki said not looking sorry at all. "But I activated my ability a bit before I told you I had it. "This place has absolutely zero mana now." At this Nine's frown deepened but he still kept it directed towards the two men obviously blaming them for having pushed her so far. "I would advise you not to resist what happens next," she said as Nine slowly walked forward towards them. "Man Shirou's going to be pissed at this," she said.

 **With Shirou (Currently Being Pissed About Something Else)**

The fight had gone on for less than ten seconds and already Shirou had found himself a bit out of his league. For the first time in a while he pushed [Ryuujin's perfect body] past its initial level to the point that he felt less like a human and more like a particularly vicious tidal wave. His jets of water were now no longer like spears but more like the abyss crushing down on each pound of flesh. And still this creature didn't show any signs of flagging. Arcueid was going wild and Shirou wasn't sure if she was avoiding attacking him because she didn't register him as an enemy or if she didn't register him as a threat.

The problem was that nothing was causing it to attack any less ferociously and it was slowly becoming immune to both Arcueid and his attacks. Twice he had managed to trap the thing. Once in ice when he had frozen the water he had used to attack it and another time when he tried to use his magic to restrain the creature directly. Both times she had simply flexed her prana and escaped from the trap.

Shirou decided to take the initiative because if the current stalemate between the two continued the city would eventually be the loser. He teleported behind the creature and silently activated his ultimate spell. "[Amessunu Istenis]," he said aiming the spell at the ladies endowments. The spell worked as planned air took on the properties of the abyss and the spell being condensed into such a small relative area upped the sheer damage a bit leading to the entire chest of the lady being obliterated.

For a moment he felt successful and then he only felt cold as a hand plunged into his chest in retaliation. Even without her chest the woman was still able to do some damage and to his despair he noticed the chest start to grow back as she retracted her hand. She didn't have the chance to do any further damage as Arcueid pounced and tackled her out of the way.

Shirou fell to the floor spent. Avalon kicked into overdrive and started to heal him. Earlier he had even broken his taboo to not use the fourth on living beings and the creature had still managed to survive. Any concepts he applied caused the creature to either manipulate her body in such a way that they didn't apply any more or to actualize her immunity to a particular concept by the release of prana.

He mentally ticked off the option of kill True Demon in his head. The creature had proven capable of shrugging off his toughest weapons. The only option left was to seal it.

"Wait that it," Shirou jolted up his body protesting as the last of the wounds were healed by the mythical scabbard. "I can send it away where it can't get back." He quickly did a thorough analysis and sighed at what he was about to do.

Standing up he watched the two fighting again although this time Arcueid was losing as the creature was releasing prana to jets of water. Seeing this Shirou felt happy that a True Demon had acknowledged his magecraft as worth copying, but he schooled himself for the job he had to do.

Reaching inside himself he felt the weight of the weapon in his right hand. He stilled his breath and focused the entire world narrowing to him, his weapon and the True Demon. As one last precaution he quickly added that always accurate concept that he used on his gun. Then he teleported.

Appearing behind her a straight thrust speared through her chest, her attempts to dodge proving ineffective against the new concept attached. Almost in slow motion he saw the claws coming towards him so he quickly activated the special ability of his weapon.

"[Avalon The Everdistant Utopia,] he intoned. And the hands didn't reach him because the beast was in Avalon. However that wasn't good enough. He added prana unit by unit until he felt the third ability of the scabbard activate.

Avalon's primary ability was to heal. Its second ability was to bestow intangibility to the wielder as the wielder would be transported to Avalon where the owner could not be harmed. The third ability functioned as a higher version of the second and acted as a gateway to Avalon whereby a person could enter the land of the fae and also the fae could if they so wished enter our world.

The woman attacked him in an odd parody of the way that Nrvnqsr attacked him almost a year ago. Claws that would tear him to shreds didn't reach him and with one last bit of exertion the beast dissolved into sparks having left this world.

Shirou breathed in and out heavily and raised his head just in time to see Arcueid lunging for his neck her eyes glowing and her face contorted in an expression of feral rage.

"Motherfu…" was all that Shirou managed to say before the True Ancestor hit him and everything went black.

 **Author Note This is actually a chapter I'm happy with. Most likely it will be one more chapter of this really, really long Arc and then some filler. For the record the creature that they faced this chapter was a True Demon. In other words Ex grade bad news. Arcueid was the only one who could fight it and she pushed herself beyond her limits to do so leading to the results at the end of this chapter.**

 **Vault 166 Yup its far more likely the demon would one-shot him.**

 **Yukie Shiki It's a line taken from the Enuma Elish which proceeds the flood myth. It describes the mixing of salt and freshwater in the creation of the world.**

 **Tobias97 snowyassas1n Thanks for your advice. Honestly I keep all my chapters double backed up so I might just risk it.**

 **KRKing As much as I would love to answer that question I don't give spoilers. Unless they're appropriately vague.**

 **The Rupture Nope just your run of your mill potential killer of all humanity. With a bit more time it probably would have classified for beast class. Thankfully it was appropriately ganked. And yes I do love shocking revalations how could you tell.**

 **Guest Thank you. They went well. Don't worry I never said the date. They finished on the 25th.**

 **Archelone You give good advice. Thank you for that and please continue. I wasn't entirely happy about that infodump as well, but at that point I felt like I had to justify why the fight went that way and you saw the result. Also the only amazingly overpowered magician we have is Zelretch who was old when Arc was a child. Aoko barely uses it and she nearly wiped out the universe the one time she did.**


	18. No Current Sea Problems

Shirou groggily escaped the land of nod. His head was pounding and there was a massive pain in his neck. Opening his eyes he saw the other massive pain in the neck he had to deal recently, her red eyes looking guilty at him from her position on all fours leaning over him.

"What did you do Arcueid?" he said exhaustion filling his every word.

"Uh, Shirou," Arcueid replied back nervously. "I may have been caught up in the moment and taken a tiny bite. I just had a little bit of blood," she quickly clarified.

Shriou sighed and performed a quick analysis of himself, ignoring the pounding in his head. He had a momentary flash of regret now that he realised Avalon was gone but he consoled himself that it was absolutely necessary and he may be able to make a replacement. Wincing slightly at what he saw he realised that ten percent of his fluid reserves were gone. Raising his hand he poked Arcueid in her belly.

"Where the hell did you put all fluids you took," he asked Arcueid looking at her slender frame. A part of his physiology that he discovered was if he lost too much blood it would be replaced by the water in his body. From his calculations and his steadily growing reserve of H2O in his body he estimated that she must have drunk over one hundred litres of blood. He looked upwards to her breasts and nodded idly to himself as if confirming something.

"You can change back right," Arcueid said biting her lip nervously.

"Yeah," Shirou confirmed.

"Oh, so you can change back from a vampire," a most unpleasant voice came from the side just out of eyesight of Shirou stated. He turned and was confronted with Narbareck her lost arm restored. "This is definitely something the church must know about," she said her smile widening. "Assuming it's true of course and I won't be forced to hunt you down later for being a dead apostle."

Arcueid stepped forward threateningly but Shirou just sighed. Analysing himself he saw the record of his existence recorded in the root. He focused in on the moment he changed and took in his state at that time. The him of then was a lot like now except it didn't have the vampirism so he isolated the differences in his head and removed the concept of vampirism from his body.

In theory he should not have done this with a pounding headache. It was only due to his long months of practice after Nrvnqsr that he was even able to use magic while being this incapacitated. Even removing the vampirism did little to abate the war drums inside his skull.

"Yeah, I'm unvampirised," he said. "Now kindly fuck off. You were all but useless in the fight and you've been an almighty hindrance ever since I woke up."

"Yeah," Narbareck said and for the first time Shirou had ever seen her she looked visibly upset about it. "Yeah, what is it those in the millitary say, "Prior preparation prevents poor performance." I wasn't prepared to deal with a demon otherwise I would have brought my demon hunting equipment and hopefully put up a better fight." She straightened up and continued speaking. "The sealing designate left the building shortly after the fight commenced. Do you have any way to track her?"

"Why," Shirou said. "Are you offering your help?"

"Whether I like it or not the church owes you a debt," the now once-again green eyed girl said. "It would be best if we discharged it as soon as possible."

"I think I'll save that," Shirou replied. "I know all her hideouts and I had my familiar watch the building in case she escaped. It shouldn't take too long to find her."

"Suit yourself," Narbareck shrugged. She tossed him what looked to be a business card. "Here's my number for when you want to call in that favour."

Narbareck then looked at him. Her gaze was so intense that she made Shirou feel quite self-concious. "What," he said after thirty seconds of this happenind."

Narbareck briefly chuckled to herself, "You know I was wrong about you when we first met. I don't think you are ever going to devolve into a monster." She smiled and the smile was different than her previous gentle smiles. It displayed an edge of cruelty and an enjoyment of suffering. "I genuinely hope that we meet again Shirou."

With that she was gone, disappearing in an instant leaving only Arcueid and him in the room.

"She seems nice," Arcueid said causing Shirou to do a double take.

xxx

When Shirou had scanned Touko originally to determine that it was the real her and not a puppet he had read her history to determine what safehouses she owned. Later when he left the building he immediately contacted his familiar Len and asked her for the location of the sealing designate. Len had managed to follow her for quite a while before she lost the trail but it was enough for Shirou to determine her most likely safehouse.

This lead to Arcueid and Shirou walking up to the safehouse which Touko Aozaki was most likely using. It looked like an average apartment on the third floor of a complex. As Shirou approached the door to knock it swung open to his surprise. Walking inside he came across the image of Touko Aozaki drinking tea. A quick analysis confirmed that this version was a puppet. Shirou didn't really care. If that made her feel safer she would be more willing to negotiate.

Shirou opened his mouth to begin negotiations but was cut off by Touko before he could get a word out.

"Your name is Shirou correct," she said examining him from behind her glasses. At Shirou's look of suprise "Believe it or not I do actually subscribe to the practice of putting cameras inside any building I own."

"I wonder how many Shirou's with red hair there are in Japan that are also a magus," she said drawing a cigarette and with a snap of her fingers a rune appeared causing it to ignite.

"I'm not a magus," Shirou replied, because damn it he's not going to have people run around referring to himself as one.

"A person who can use magecraft then," Touko waved her cigarette.

Shirou nodded, that clarification was acceptable.

"I personally don't care that you decided not to re-establish whatever relationship you had before the fire but Aoko is going to be pissed," Touko stated taking off her glasses. "She was always a bit fond of you before she left. You were a toddler when she entered her teenage years. A miracle baby, our parents were in their fifties when they had you."

Touko waved her head. "Look at me getting all nostalgic, I suppose it's amusing to know our trainwreck of a family is now three instead of two."

"Regardless of our family connection I have a job for you," Shirou stated leaving that can of worms only partially opened. "I need you to construct a body that can handle the magic circuits of an Einzbern homunculus."

Touko's eyes widened slightly. "An Einzbern homunculus," she repeated. "I've heard they were quite rare all of a sudden for obvious reasons." Her gaze refocused upon Shirou. "But what payment do you have for me."

"I have recently acquired a sample of the Einzbern research notes on homunculus creation. I'm sure these notes will enhance your ability to create these magnificent puppets."

For a moment they both stared at each other. Then Touko chuckled. "You're some weird mix of me and Aoko. It's actually a bit disconcerting." She raised her hand and Shirou grasped it. "So when can I meet the homunculus."

"It depends," Shirou replied. "Can this puppet body perform the necessary procedure?"

"Yes," Touko replied quizzically.

"Then now," Shirou replied and with his other hand he grasped Arcueid and as Len jumped on his head he teleported all four of them to his house.

Appearing in the entranceway he was immediately confronted by the fact that it looked as if somebody had committed arson. The walls and floor were blackened and cracked. Worse than that was the fact that there was no mana in the surrounding area.

"Satsuki," Shirou growled under his breath. The not-a-vampire was the only person who he knew who could do this. It was always such a hassle to get rid of these zones as they naturally repulsed mana even after initially draining it.

"Excuse me," he said to Touko who had recovered unnaturally quickly from the teleportation and now was looking at him suspiciously. "I have to find out what happened here."

He headed into the next room and was confronted by the combined presence of Nine, Satsuki and Illya. All of them were glaring at two men, who were restrained with ropes and gagged, on the floor. Illya's birds were constantly circling them.

"What happened," Shirou asked his anger at Satsuki cooling as he realised that they may have been attacked.

Satsuki spilt the story with Illya joining in and Nine confirming that was what happened in the end. When the story had finished Shirou then looked towards the two men who glared at him from the floor.

"Cornelius Alba," Shirou heard Touko say from behind him, having entered the room sometime during the story.

"You know this prick," Shirou enquired of her.

"He's with the Clocktower," Touko said. "He's actually fairly highly ranked." She took another drag of the cigarette that had miraculously appeared in her hand. "Only the root knows why he decided to come here."

"Don't worry I have ways of finding out." He stalked towards the two men and with two swift kicks knocked them both unconscious starting with Alba.

"Len," Shirou said. "It's cake for you once you get the information."

The succubus in the shape of a cat jumped down and landed on the man's head. After a moment she curled up and seemed to fall asleep.

"Let's leave that for now," Shirou said. "Len will get the information in due time. Everybody I'd like you all to meet Touko Aozaki. She'll be helping Illya have a normal life."

Illya looked nervous gazing upon the person who was supposed to help her live a normal life. Luckily Nine stepped up and charmingly introduced himself getting a dubious look from the brown haired Aozaki. Satsuki also introduced herself although she was evidently still a bit on edge from the fact that she was attacked.

Touko ignored them both and walked up to the child homunculus and started analysing her. Taking her arms into her hands and sending some form of magecraft. After a moment she pulled out a mystic code and waved it in front of Illya.

"Beautiful," she said. "Whoever did this performed beautiful work. They somehow modified the magic circuits to be far more productive. This is the closest I've ever seen to the third magic. Come follow me," she said and dragged the wide-eyed white-haired girl away with her.

"Where the hell is she taking her," Shirou pondered. "She doesn't have a workshop here. I thought I would have to take her back to get equipment."

Shirou shrugged and went to cook something. As he entered the kitchen and prepared to make himself a treat he was stopped by Satsuki who looked very sheepish. After a moment's hesitation she spoke.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I know I'm not allowed to use that in the house."

"No worries," Shirou said shrugging it off. "While the dead spots would linger for a while he knew a few ways of hurrying up the process of re-manafication.

"I'm going to get stronger," Satsuki said. "I'm going to ask Sumire to teach me magecraft so that I can fight without resorting to using that."

Despite wanting to make himself some food Shirou would never let a discussion of magecraft go by. After a few moments of thinking he shook his head.

"No," he stated. "That technique of yours naturally opposes mana and it is an intrinsic part of you. What you need to learn is a few internal techniques that primarily use your od."

Shirou then returned to the preparation of the food. "You have good circuits and enough od that you can make do without mana. Your best technique would be to drain the mana from the area and then beat them down with manaless techniques."

Shirou turned towards Satsuki. "To that end I actually agree that you should talk to Sumire. She may not look it but she's a master of dragging others down to her level and beating them there."

"And what are you a master of Satsuki," asked Shirou curiously.

"I'm more of a find the person's weakness and exploit it again and again kind of person," Shirou said finishing up his unnamed snack. "Want some," he offered Satsuki. Satsuki gratefully took one and nibbled on it.

"So what's your plan to deal with the attackers," she asked eagerly.

"Don't you worry," Shirou said with a smile on his face. "Where we send them they're not going to be coming back for a long, long time."

xxx

Len had finished relaying the entire life stories of the two men that were currently bound in front of him. They had moved into a separate more secluded room in the house. "So you're saying the entire reason he attacked my house was because he was looking for Kiritsugu because he had originally hunted down Kiritsugu's father and he wanted to complete the set."

At Len's nod he whistled. "Wow he's unlucky," Shirou continued. "If the Einzbern hadn't somehow informed everybody that it was Kiritsugu who ruined them, if he hadn't somehow decided that Kiritsugu hadn't left Fuyuki since the Grail Wars and if he hadn't questioned some of the Fujimura group who had known Kiritsugu he would have still been alive."

"Oh well," Shirou shrugged. "Nine dispose of him."

At his masters call Nine fell upon them both in the shape of a mass of claws and teeth. Bones were cracked, flesh stripped and organs were gulped down voraciously. In less than thirty seconds not even bones remained and Shirou was once again treated to the site of a perfectly normal Nine who nobody would have believed just devoured two humans.

Thinking for a minute Shirou pulled out his phone and made a call to a number he had just received. After a moment the phone was answered.

"Vatican pizza delivery, your pizza appropriately pious or your money back."

Shirou removed the phone from his ear and looked at it as if it had just insulted his mother. After a moment he decided to ignore whatever madness the woman on the other side of the phone displayed in lieu of finishing the conversation and not having anything to do with her for a while.

"Narbareck," he said. "I'm calling in the favour. How do you feel about killing Kiritsugu Emiya." An excited sound on the other end of the phone was heard. "No he's already dead; I'm not asking you to actually kill him. I just want the Clocktower to think he was gone. Yes I am expecting you to lie. You don't have any principles Narbareck. Okay, you'll do it. Good day."

Shirou put down the phone with an absolute look of distress on his face. "I actually think I'm starting to enjoy talking with her," he noted with disgust.

xxx

Shirou was getting his ass kicked in a game of monopoly with Gilgamesh when Illya suddenly came barrelling into the room.

"Big brother," she yelled out. "I'm going to have boobs."

Gilgamesh just chuckled and continued expanding his chain of hotels demonstrating to all others the unmatched hospitality that Uruk offered.

"So you and Touko worked something out," Shirou replied ruffling her hair. "That's great what's the cost?"

"It didn't cost much at all big brother. A few copies of the Einzbern research and I had to let her properly examine me." She suddenly shuddered and Shirou got the inkling that bringing up this point would lead to a deterioration of the peace.

"So no problems, the body won't have to be updated in future," Shirou asked waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"No it should last decades," Illya said chirpily. "By the time it wears out I should have become proficient enough in the Einzbern magecraft to create my own."

"Wow so there's no catch at all," Shirou said happily.

"Umm," Illya hesitated sounding nervous. "It happens that Touko is a bit out of the required materials so we may have to pay a bit to obtain the best materials for a new body."

Shirou just rubbed his eyes and sighed. "How much," he asked.

"Twenty million yen," Illya replied sounding nervous as if she expected that this would be the sticking point. "I have some plans to ra…"

Shirou raised his hand to cut her off. "Let me get my cheque book," he said.

"Wait, wait, wait," Illya said. "You mean you have enough money."

"Yeah, I regularly salvage treasure from ships that have been sunk and then I convert the gold and sell off the jewels and invest the amounts. My investment manager ensures me that my portfolio is doing well."

"Yes," Gilgamesh said leaning back on the couch. "Although I believe it may be time to cash out the various investments. The market is showing all the signs of an imminent recession."

"Already done," Shirou said. "I'm currently waiting for it to hit and then buy the rock-bottom shares in companies who I believe will weather the storm."

"We'll see," Gilgamesh said. "I will only acknowledge you as a man of wealth and good judgement when you can make half the return I have."

"Just watch and wait Gilgamesh," Shirou a determined look in his eye. "Anyway Illya want to join us for monopoly. We need to create a conglomerate to take down Uruk enteprises."

"Your pitiful attempts to even compete with my empire amuse me," Gilgamesh gloated. "By all means bring your sister I will enjoy leaving you impoverished."

Illya sat down next to Shirou on the couch selecting a dog. "Don't you feel that you're forgetting something Shirou," she said. "Like there's something big coming and you haven't prepared for it."

"You mean the Holy Grail War, Illya. It's not that I haven't prepared for it. I just don't know how to do anything to make me more ready." He winked at his adoptive sister. "I suppose we could always spy for weaknesses in our competition," he said deliberately eying up Gilgamesh as he said that.

"As if you could find any weaknesses," Gilgamesh scoffed. "Now roll the dice. My cannon still has a great many acquisitions to make."

xxx

In a room sat an old man reading a report. There was nothing particularily special about the room. There was a fire place that was currently alit, a single desk filled with papers and a chair. Even the man looked rather ordinary at first glance. Only at first glance however the man could be perceived as anything ordinary.

He had white hair and blood red eyes. Furthermore his skin was wrinkle free despite his age. If one were to look at a picture of him they would not put his age at any more than forty. However if the person was in front of him in the brief seconds that they would have before all their blood was sucked dry they would realise that the man put out an aged quality like an old statue that predated recorded history. A sense of this thing existed before you and this thing will outlive you.

The man put down his report looking incredibly bitter. "Chaos disappeared," he said, his thoughts being dictated out loud.

"It is a pity, while he is uncontrollable, he could have been a help for what is to come." The man sighed and the sound was akin to oxygen leaving a corpses' lungs.

"It doesn't matter," he concluded. "Even though I despise the princess there is no doubt in my mind that she will act for the good of this ritual." He smiled and it appeared as a rictus death mask. "If she brings her beast it won't even be a competition."

Getting up he poured himself a glass of wine. "To our success," he toasted to himself. "Just a few short years now."

 **Author Note The last chapter of this incredibly long arc. Next there will be a few chapters of everyday life filler. Just to put some downtime in between the major arcs.**

 **The Rupture He actually tried. The problem is that True Demons cannonically have an upgraded version of wishcraft. Anytime he applied something the demon would release prana and reverse it.**

 **I phrased that poorly. When I said "hit" I meant to imply that she collided with Shirou and knocked him out.**

 **Super Saiai I don't really feel like writing an omake. There are three beings that are said to reside in Avalon. Merlin, Arturia and Sir Francis Drake. To paraphrase an amazing high budget fight. They attacked the True Demon and were losing until Sir Francis Drake stole Avalon from it and Arturia hit it with Excalibur and the Merlin bullshitted it out of existence.**

 **SpawnageLoong I implied that she had it way back in chapter seven when the bounded field Shirou set up to restrain her automatically faded and she was walking around. Shirou had bigger fish to fry at that point so he didn't give it much thought.**

 **Oblivion168 Not quite. It won't be a curbstomp. Shirou actually got quite lucky in managing to beat the True Demon. He's incredibly strong but not ORT Zel PM or even Arcueid strong yet.**

 **KRKing There is one more major arc before the Holy Grail War. The Mirrored Curses arc plus whatever filler chapters of inconsequential bullshit I put in in the middle.**

 **omegazero2718 He's tough he'll survive.**

 **Guest While I know that assassin Emiya exists. This is one hero I can confirm will not show up less I be accused of ripping off From Fake Dreams.**

 **AnimeA55Kicker Not yet**

 **Archleone I'm literally adding my reply to your review in the end because I didn't see it despite some good questions. Chapters out Touko doesn't give much of a damn. She would treat him like a brother if he wanted but since he doesn't seem to want to she decides not to make the effort. Yeah I was joking about that. There most likely won't be explosions. It will be damn awkward though for obvious reasons. They used to be close then they drifted apart. It was a little Aoko's fault and a little Shirou's but it was circumstance. Hard to write. The demon that Illya "fought" was. I don't know about whether she would still be a grail. I'd have to research and decide. All joking aside the cooking magecraft didn't exist. Shirou's parents circuits combined are equal to Shinji. It's just when he was young Shirou was so eager to learn magecraft and his parents couldn't teach him as they didn't have any. His mother pretended that the cooking was like magecraft (she was a very very good cook) to try and get Shirou excited about helping in the kitchen. Some would say this worked too well.**


	19. The date

"Master Inke, please wake up," the voice instructed. It was quite a magnificent voice by all accounts. The deific being that must have crafted it had truly outdone himself. That said it really wasn't something that he wanted to hear at this time in the morning. Not only was the bed comfortable but he was having a very good dream. It was a dream that certain parts of his anatomy desperately wanted him to continue.

Knowing that he had earlier given Nine specific instructions to not let him sleep to late and that his butler was nothing but not persistent he gave up. Blinking blearily he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and sat up specifically ignoring certain hard parts of his body.

"Good day Nine," he said gracefully forgiving him from waking him from his most enjoyable slumber. "Can you tell me where everybody is today?"

"Certainly Master," he said his smile growing wilder. "I'm taking out Lady Von Einzbern to zoo in a nearby city to look at the animals. Lady Yumizuka is working extra days with Lady Sumire. Lady Arcueid is downstairs having some of the breakfast I made."

Shirou ignored the minor smug smile upon Nine's face. Due to his difficulty getting up in the morning Nine had all but annexed the morning cooking. However Shirou recently had a plan. While freezing food in this house would get you scoffed at due to the inherent loss of freshness that only applied to freezing food by way of cold.

Shirou had recently been experimenting with his magic and attempting to freeze an objects passage through time. Thus he could cook his food at night and freeze it to be eaten fresh in the morning. With this tactic he was going to seize back breakfast from Nine. He started smiling just thinking about it.

Nine genuinely smiled at seeing his Master happy. While he did believe that as a butler it was his duty to provide for his Master he also knew that it was his greatest duty to keep his Master happy. This back and forth with both of them competing to create the current meal amused his Master and thus he took every opportunity to one-up him in the culinary arts. However now not the time for whimsical musing, he needed to remove the white haired young lady from the house.

Despite now looking much more appropriate to her age the woman had not yet grown much up mentally. Thus he had cunningly proposed a visit to the zoo when he needed her to leave the house and his Master to his own devices. Turning on his heel and leaving the room he headed outside to meet up with the Lady Von Einzbern so he could take her to enjoy the day.

Shirou watched his butler leave the room. Standing up he quickly dressed himself in his clothes and headed downstairs. Walking into the kitchen he came across the quite unusual, for almost anybody else, sight of the last remaining True Ancestor in the world chowing down on Nine's homemade cooking. The sight of Arcueid enjoying both his and Nine's cooking never failed to bring a smile to his face. Especially since the greedy vampire actually didn't need food.

"Arc," he said right behind the vampire making her start. She turned towards him and gave him an innocent look which out of the one person standing in the room with her fooled precisely zero people.

"Arcueid how are you," he said. "I'm doing rather well today," he continued not giving her a chance to answer. "Except for one thing."

He fixed her with a stare which seemed to melt through Arcueid's façade of innocence. "For the last few days I've had recurring dreams. Odd isn't it. I mean my familiar is a dream demon; the least that should give me is a peaceful sleep. But all of these things had one thing in common, or to be more precise, one person in common." At this he shook his head. "And when you consider who the caretaker/owner of Len was before this it should be no mystery who conspired to let me have these dreams."

Arcueid stared back with an expression of curiosity mingling with carefully manufactured innocence. Shirou mustered up the will to glare for a few seconds before he smiled and relaxed.

"Arcueid," he said. "Want to go on a date."

"Yes Shirou," Arcueid said jumping up and hugging him without a hint of shame or modesty. "I've been waiting for you to say that."

"I could tell," Shirou said his face deadpan. "Very well, while I'm inexperienced with this I believe I have enough experience via manga, visual novels and other related media to conduct a successful date.

He closed his eyes and then opened them again. "All right Arcueid. This is going to be a whole day affair with multiple events. Together you and I will trip every flag and go for the golden ending. Are you ready?"

"Let's do this," Arcueid said, her face displaying utmost seriousness.

xxx

"Here we are," Shirou said. "Exciting Splash," he said looking at the imposing building. "A place where couples can look at each other in swimsuits and get really fucking awkward about the whole thing. I actually quite like this place although it's not as good as the beach."

Looking back at the blond vampire he took note that she still carried that package that probably contained the swimsuit she refused to let him see. As a proper date he must pretend to be overwhelmed by that admittedly tasty looking white swimsuit that she couldn't quite hide from him.

Walking into the building he and Arcueid nodded seriously to each other and headed into the changing room.

He left the changeroom about twenty seconds later in his swimming trunks. They were green with an orange stripe down the side. They were quite comfy and he had bought them for quite a reasonable price down at the Verde mall. He hadn't even been looking for swimming trunks, he had just been shopping for cooking materials and saw them and he just had to have them.

Arcueid left the changeroom about thirty seconds after in her swimsuit. "Wow," she said. "Those are some nice swimming trunks, where did you get them."

"Verde," Shirou replied offhandedly. "It's here in Shinto. Now that I think about it I've never taken you there. Maybe we should go there for the lunch part of the date."

"I see inviting the girl to a classy new place for lunch," Arcueid said. "Twenty points."

Shirou chuckled to himself. "Well let's see if I can't increase my points. Arcueid, do you know how to swim?" At Arcueids nod he continued. "We can't actually race or engage in feats of high physical activity because we are surrounded by ordinary humans. I'm afraid this bit will be more of a lazy activity."

Arcueid pouted at that, "minus ten points Shirou."

Shirou snorted, "Why don't we just talk Arcueid? With so many people coming in and out of the house we don't often get the chance to have a long one-on-one conversation."

After a moment of thinking Arcueid showed her assent by cannonballing into the water causing those in the immediate vicinity to get dunked. Shirou followed suit except when he hit the water it was barely displaced.

Popping out of the water he watched Arcueid start to float on her back. Seeing her relaxing he took a moment to gather his thoughts he asked the question that was on his mind.

"So, Arc. What brought this date on," he said. "I know you've always liked those romantic movies but you've never actually seemed to be interested in romance before today." That question stopped the mood and for a few seconds there was silence between them.

Arcueid stopped floating and paddled over to Shirou. "I wanted to see what it was like." After a few moments of thinking she shook her head. "No that's a lie." Her voice went quiet and Shirou had to strain to hear. "I never had friends or family or love. Spending time with you and the group has showed me what I was missing. I don't want to miss anymore. I like you Shirou. Whether it's as a friend or family or as my love I want to find out. I want to experience it."

Swimming a bit forward she pulled Shirou into a hug. "I was created by the True Ancestors with no point than to be the strongest. After that my point was to hunt down my mistake and kill the renegade dead apostles." She looked at him with gratitude in her eyes. "Despite cutting me into seventeen pieces that is always something I will be grateful for Shiki for. At that night the Arcueid that lived a joyless, loveless and friendless life died and I was born. I'm not going to hold back from pursuing what I want Shirou."

Shirou chuckled to himself. "What," said Arcueid defensively. "I just poured my heart out, don't laugh at me."

"No," Shirou said covering his mouth. "That happened two years ago I remember. If that's really the day you were born then it looks like I'm not getting lucky anytime soon."

Arcueid smiled with good humour. Then she leaned up to him and whispered in his ear. "Excellent flag Shirou. Fifty points. If you keep it up you might end up getting lucky sooner than you think."

At that she swam away and Shirou just stood there being treated to the sight of her shapely behind.

xxx

"A French restaurant Shirou, really? You're going all out on this romantic endeavour. Your determination to get into my pants is quite flattering," Arcueid said teasingly.

"You've been watching too many of your terrible movies Arcueid," Shirou said as he handed back the menus to the waiter. "I actually happen to like French cuisine. It's one of the few things the frogs got right."

"You don't even dislike the French," Arcueid whispered. "You're just trying to provoke an altercation." She shook her head. "You can have a fight with me later. Right now just concentrate on the date."

"All right, you got me," Shirou said. "I don't believe the French are better or worse than any other nationality."

"Good," Arcueid stated. "Now I do believe it is my turn to ask a question." She thought for a minute and then nodded her head decisively. "Here it is," she said. "What kind of girl do you like? I mean in terms of looks."

At this Shirou leant back in his chair. Trust Arcueid to go straight for the jugular. After a moment of contemplation he had his answer albeit one that was not very satisfactory.

"I don't," he said. "Believe it or not but I actually don't care that much about looks." He clarified as Arcueid looked at him in disbelief. "I know there are standards of beauty but unless they're horrendously unattractive I get turned on more from their personality."

Seeing Arcueid's questioning gaze he clarified. "There are three main personality traits that I really quite like." He took a breath and raised three fingers, lowering the first he started. "First is somebody who is competitive. Someone who can and would go blow for blow with me in whichever event I'm doing. I like somebody who won't back down and give in, somebody who won't let everything go my way."

Lowering his second finger he continued. "Second is their nature. I like somebody who cares about others, somebody who will help them gently along and be there for them listening to their troubles and providing advice." Shirou seemed to think for a bit and then shook his head sheep-faced. "Alternately I also like somebody who is cruel to others. Who will hinder other people and take laugh at their pain." He put his hand under his chin in thought. "I think the unifying point of those two natures is that they have to acknowledge others and actively make a difference in the world whether for good or ill. Maybe I just like extremes. Who knows?"

He lowered his last finger and put his hand down. "The last is one that often comes with the first. I like somebody who always strives to be better than their current selves, somebody who will not bow down to the expectations of those older and stronger than her. It is quite a touching thing to see somebody who refuses to listen to those wiser than her and lives by her own rules destroying all obstacles in her path."

Shirou once again refocused on Arcueid noticing that her face seemed to be worried. "Shirou," she said. "I don't fulfil any of those. I don't compete, I mostly ignore other humans and I'm content with how I am." She bit her lip and looked for her answer.

"On the contrary Arcueid, you meet all three criteria to some extent. You regularly compete with me. Not just in sparring but even in swimming, a competition in which you hold the utmost disadvantage. You regularly try against both Sumire and I and you're not the slowest by such a huge amount. You're could very well be the third fastest being underwater in the world."

He drank from the glass of orange juice he received. Being under twenty he wasn't legally allowed to drink alcohol. Not that it stopped him from regularly attacking Sumire's stash when the aquatic vampire was distracted. "Secondly Arcueid while you may not know it you've always been kind to humans. I'm not talking about the killing of vampires because that's your job but you've always helped me whenever you're available. Sure you don't run a charity or something but I've often seen you help strangers on the streets. I've seen you rescue a kitten from a tree Arc, I'm fairly sure that makes you qualify."

"Thirdly, you supress your thirst for blood for every day that you've been with us. You refuse to become a demon lord. Also you refused to become an unthinking pinnacle, a lonely person who only carries out their own duties mechanically. Better does not mean stronger Arcueid."

The both of them tucked into their meals, enjoying the unusual tastes that usually came with eating different countries foodstuffs. After finishing her food first Arcueid asked a question that had been idly bumping around in her head for the duration of the meal. "So you said you care more for their personality then their body right."

"While I admit I'm not entirely unswayed by beautiful women those traits inspire far more lust in me then how good their body is," Shirou clarified. "While I believe I would be moved to copulate with a woman of impeccable looks there would be no love there."

"So what about men," Arcueid asked with an expression of pure curiosity. "If there was a guy who met all your personality criteria then would you have sex with him?"

Shirou finished up his lunch and contemplated the question for a moment. "No," he said after a while. "While I would certainly admire that person I'm afraid I'm far too low down in the Kinsey Scale too be able to enjoy partaking in my own gender. What about you? Any girls caught your eye, Arc?"

Arcueid just shrugged not knowing the answer to the question and the second part of the date was complete.

xxx

"So what are we watching Shirou?" Arcueid questioned.

She and Shirou were standing in a line getting their tickets for a movie. Arcueid had often spent time in the movie theatre. Shirou had not as he tended to enjoy watching television more. While occasionally Arcueid joined him in watching his gameshows. Shirou avoided going with Arcueid to the movies. There was a very good reason for that.

"We're going to watch that latest romantic comedy you've been eying for the past week," he said, any distaste miraculously absent from his voice. Shirou despised romantic movies and would normally never go to them but this was a special occasion so the he had to support Arcueid in going to see this madness.

"Shirou," the vampire said. "Thank you for taking me. I know you don't like any movies with romance in for some reason."

Shirou stepped forward and paid the cashier for the tickets and also got two large popcorns and water for him and some form of sugary drink for Arcueid.

"I've never understood why you do like romance movies Arc," Shirou admitted.

Arcueid pondered for a bit. "I suppose I like the idea of those that are truly in love overcoming all the obstacles, and doing anything to win the girl or the guy and on the end having a happy ending with both of them together."

As Shirou opened his mouth she continued picking up speed. "You're probably going to say something about how they don't deal with real problems like economic or social status. How the mundanities of life are substituted for the fantastical storybook romance and that perfect relationships don't exist." At this Arcueid started imitating Shirou's voice. "How events after them getting together isn't dealt with like toxic marriages and infidelity." At this Arcueid stopped and looked Shirou in the eyes. "But I don't care; I think that romance movies exemplify the beautiful dream of true love."

At this point Shirou was looking at her eyes wide then he smiled. "How long have you had that speech prepared Arc," he giggled suddenly looking quite happy. "You're absolutely right. There is nothing beautiful about the human species. For the most part they are a tremendously destructive species that tends to slide down into apathy when confronted with the immense effort to receive a golden ending." Shirou looked at Arcueid who was still glaring at him defiantly. "But that doesn't apply to all humans. There are saints among humankind. There are people who manage to find true happiness. There are people who give there all to plot a bright path through mankind's future."

Shirou looked at his watch briefly checking on the time to go before they could go in. "I do actually believe in the potential of humans and as a person who deals in concepts it would be remiss of me to neglect the beautiful concept that it love. The thing you got wrong Arc was not that I don't believe in true love but I believe romance movies do a poor job of representing it."

Shirou took a breath to gather his thoughts. "Love isn't sending her a thousand roses. It's taking the garbage out for over twenty years. It's not running to catch the flight she's leaving on. It's giving up on your dream promotion because then you won't be able to see her every day. Love is not serenading her with a big romantic number. It's holding her hand when she's in hospital with no hair after poison is pumped through her because it's the only way she can continue to live."

For a few moments there was silence between them. Then Arcueid continued, "You know you've always struck me as a harem kind of person."

"Don't even get me started on harems," Shirou started. "That's not a problem of love but of low self-esteem."

They forgot to see their movie.

xxx

"A romantic walk in the park to finish up a date," Arcueid said a look of surprise. "Wow you've really done you research."

"Yeah," Shirou replied. "This park would look quite nice if it wasn't so heavily cursed."

"Yeah," Arcueid said with a look of wonder on her face. "It feels like Gaia just packed up and left."

"Yeah, it's actually fascinating," Shirou continued. "I did some research on this a few years back. I actually cleared a bit of the park up ahead with my magic but the curse was too embedded in the land and too strong for me to completely dissipate."

They both felt it as soon as they arrived at that point. The air felt cleaner and the atmosphere felt lest hostile. Bits of greenery were even growing there in defiance to the barrenness of the surrounding lands.

"Shirou I have a question," Arcueid said her red eyes fixed on his. "What do you feel about marriage?"

Shirou's eyes widened before he calmed down. "A purely academic question I assume Arc. I don't think even you would be so bold to propose on the first date." He stood there a moment playing with his hands deep in thought. "Marriage is meant for humans," he raised his head and looked Arcueid dead in the eyes. "Humans are driven by their instincts to have children and marriage provides the best model to do so. For specific humans and magi in particular marriages are used to raise heirs and keep the lines and research alive as well as build alliances."

He sighed. "True Ancestors were created whenever one was needed. You obviously don't feel the need to create anymore and you should presumably live for a long, long time so there is no need for you to maintain your lineage."

"As for me I could live forever with the use of the fourth, growing stronger all the while and harder to permanently do away with. Have you seen my new regeneration mystic code Nolava. With the addition of it I am almost impossible to kill. There is no need for me to prepare an heir and I do not need the security that marriage offers."

Shirou's fidgeting briefly increased before he stilled himself. "Furthermore I believe I would not be able to remain true to the marriage. Sooner or later I would be swayed by something and I would commit infidelity. Any marriage that I joined would be doomed from the start."

Shirou looked up at Arcueid who stood staring at him for a moment. Then suddenly lips were on his and he battled to breathe as a tongue like corded steel ravaged the inside of his mouth. "Let's go home Shirou," Arcueid said and there was a tinge of what could only be called lust in her voice.

"But the flags," Shirou spluttered his eyes wide for once in his life totally off guard.

"Flags are for humans," Arcueid said smirking. "Now let's go. I've wanted to try out making love for a long time."

At this the beautiful vampire took off at such speed that she would have been invisible to human eyes.

"I'm getting laid," Shirou said idly to himself. "I'm getting laid," he yelled out louder and pumped his fist.

And in an instant he was gone at blinding speeds following close behind the vampire.

 **Author Note: Hey I just had a one shot out called after the date. It may be a bit racy and not for younger viewers.**

 **notonmypc I don't understand how it was dull but I am aware with the potential pacing problems. It's not something I'm going to be able to fix. Only to exercise it out through practice.**

 **DarkRai99 Yeah it's not going to happen. It's an uncomfortable situation. They will meet but a lot of time has passed.**

 **Rathalos000 Nobody stole Avalon from Shirou. He used it to teleport the demon to Avalon.**

 **The Rupture There are less benefits than you think and a lot of them are inherently linked with the bloodsucking. The main benefit was the time curse and Shirou doesn't want to rely on it. He's only thirteen nearly fourteen an age he doesn't want to be forever. One thing you need to keep in mind is a dead apostle isn't automatically strong. The ancestors are strong because they are old and have survived through a lot of shit. Plus Shirou's already pretty inhuman. Dude's like a sentient lake.**

 **cra0007 Even Zelretch wouldn't have either thought to do that or been able to pull it off.**

 **DPSS Yes it was unique and Shirou took great pains to recreate a copy that has the dubious distinction of being pretty okay.**


	20. Water MeSEA ComBRINED ASALT

Shirou and his ever-present butler, who was currently carrying the two bags he brought with him, stepped out of the busy Heathrow airport and into the gloomy England weather. Unfortunately he couldn't invite anybody else other than those present for this trip. Where he was currently headed for would be a terrible place for Arcueid and Sumire to show up unless they decided to actually declare war on the organisation. Satsuki was too weak for this particular trip and having Illya come along would set off to many alarm bells due to the current unfortunate scarcity of Einzbern homunculus.

Speaking of his beautiful and currently teenage looking sister she was getting quite uncomfortably close these days. While he would freely admit she was exotically gorgeous and his and his sexy vampire companion's relationship was still comfortably languishing in the friends with benefits stage he refused to take it any farther.

This mainly came down to two reasons. One he didn't believe Illya was emotionally mature enough to indulge in the type of relationship he and Arc had. Despite being a homunculus both she and Satsuki were by far the most human of the group and would have a typical humans view on that relationship.

Two he refused to do something as stereotypically Japanese as fucking his adopted sister. His race already had a reputation of giving the middle finger to the Westermarck effect and he refused to participate in anime's biggest excuse for a brother-sister incest plot.

Therefore he kept all his interactions with her warm but platonic despite how many times during their magecraft lessons she asked him to inspect her new body.

Hopping into a taxi he asked the taxi-driver a moustachioed Indian man to take him to the British Museum and with Nine by his side he sat back and enjoyed the ride through the streets. Finally arriving at the British Museum he left Nine to pay the man and headed inside the building.

The museum was open to members of the public and the lobby was full of family units that lined up to get in.

Shirou quickly looked from side-to-side and then he mumbled under his breath, "Full of muggles as usual."

Suddenly a hand appeared on his shoulder, "Really Master Inke. I think you've spent too much time hanging around Lady Arcueid if you're now quoting movie references.

"But it fits so well Nine," Shirou protested. "We're in a mundane area about to enter a world of magic or at least magecraft."

Shirou then looked him in the eye. "Remember also while we're here I'm not Shirou Inke but Kurio Shine. Now both you and I will infiltrate in an attempt to find the item and we'll meet up near the entrance to plot how we will obtain it. Do you understand the plan Nine."

"Perfectly Mr. Shine," his butler said. "I suppose with your new appearance nobody would ever think to connect you to the oriental Master Inke."

"Huh, I quite like that name," Shirou said to himself as he swept his hand through his unruly black hair and adjusted the glasses through which his sky blue eyes peered. "Let's go Nine."

xxx

After queuing up for a bit they entered the atrium and proceeded to head into the marine area where Shirou detected a bounded field. Coming closer Shirou realised the bounded field was a simple one that merely influenced any curious person to leave. It surrounded an innocuous door with a note on it that stated that non-staff members should not enter. Shirou just shook his head and boldly stepped through the door.

The door spread out from a single point to an astonishingly large stairway that was covered by a satin red carpet. Candelabras adorned the walls every few metres illuminating many pictures of distinguished looking men and women. It was all dreadfully fancy and Shirou found himself growing drowsy at the mere thought of all that aristocratic bullshit. Still Shirou persevered and he headed down the stairs until he was stopped by two men stepping in front of him.

The first one had brown hair and a goatee and the second was blond and had a nasty scar that barely missed his eye and took a chunk out of his nose. "State your identity," goatee called out, "and what reason you have to be here."

"Hi I'm Kurio Shine," Shirou said chipper. "I just came in because the museum was getting too crowded you know how it is." Looking at their hands drift towards whatever mystic codes they had to the sides, Shirou sighed. "No," he said, "Oh well."

In the next instant the guards were covered with water and were forcibly slammed down into the ground hard enough to knock them both out. "Nine," he said. "Would it be overkill to just eat them now?"

"They may have a wife and family Mr Shine," the butler started. "In addition as enforcers they may be successful in preventing dead apostle attacks in future. You're letting your personal distaste for magi interfere with your sense of good and evil."

Shirou sighed and bent down to cast some high-level hypnosis on them. Unless very rigorous tests were done the guards would remember nothing of Shirou and their confrontation. Straightening up he arrived at the bottom of the stairs and paused.

There was a simply massive atrium which led to a staggering number of passageways. All of them unlabled and for the first time in a bit Shirou was stunned. While the atrium was beautiful with a domed roof and more of those damned paintings he had no desire to linger.

"Let's meet up here alright," he said to Nine and proceeded down one of the passageways. Shirou spent the next few minutes walking cheerfully down the many hallways and whistling

annoying the many magi who passed him by.

"Finally seeing an open door Shirou walked inside and into a lecture hall. However while there were students there didn't appear to be any teacher. Strolling up to the nearest student he clicked his fingers in front of him and asked, "What is happening in this class?"

The student, a guy with an immensely forgettable face, turned to him from the conversation he was having with the lady next to him and looked at him as if he was an idiot. "We're meant to be having a lecture on formalcraft," he said. "The teacher just happens to be quite late."

"Oh," said Shirou intrigued. He quite enjoyed formalcraft. It was a zero od profession and wasn't interfered with by the person's origin. What one person did in a formalcraft equation could always be replicated by another person. It also held up to Gaia exceptionally well. The problem was unless you were good it took buckets load of time to do.

Shirou, Satsuki and Sumire often played a game between them whereby an effect had to be enacted by formalcraft and a person would have to do it the "best" way. Whether the best meant quickest, cheapest or least messy varied from game-to-game. Sometimes Arcueid and Illya joined in also but those two would always lose due to Arcueid's ineptitude with magecraft and Illya's overspecialisations of the same. In fact out of the many games that they played the person who always won was Sumire with either him or Satsuki coming second. While both he and Satsuki were exceptional by average magus standards Sumire was over a thousand years old and a strong competitor for the most knowledgeable magus in the world and she always had a new trick to show them.

Shirou smiled. He just had a brilliant idea to rub his knowledge in the face of the magus organisation that would infuriate them.

He turned around and strode up to the front of the room. "All right," he said. "My name is Kurio Shine and I will be teaching you how to get the best out of your mana with formalcraft."

"You're not our lecturer," some person with a penchant for the stating the obvious shouted out from the back of the room." Within a second a hand of water coalesced from behind him and plunged his head into his desk knocking him out.

"Anymore objections," Shirou scanned the room. "Alright now you're going to hear from a lot of people that formalcraft is useless, takes too long and is for untalented magi." He glanced around the room looking at the mix of rebellious and resigned looks.

"We call those people idiots," he said looking at the taken aback faces. "Formalcraft is the best magecraft ever created and here is why."

For the next two hours he waxed lyrically on about the many benefits of the art, pointed out different exploits and tricks that would negate many of the inherent disadvantages and planted seeds that would lead to further discoveries amongst the students. The lecturer had even entered about half-an-hour into the session and he simply sat back and begun to take notes.

After the session he dismissed the class, now glowing with determination and ambition, wished them well for their future discoveries and quickly left the room.

xxx

"Hmm, I'm actually pretty lost," mused Shirou to himself as he once again wandered the corridors. "Who ever heard of an infiltration failing because the person got lost?"

Suddenly in a stroke of good fortune the wall to Shirou's right exploded and relieved the tedium of his trip. In less than an instant a wall of water formed blocking the debris and then faded away once the effects of the detonation. Whistling at the sight of the destruction Shirou stepped through the door and froze.

The room was filled almost wall to wall with mystic codes. While most were inferior to the one's he made the sheer variety and imagination that went into them almost took his breath away.

He admired the sheer variety of items around the room when he heard a voice. Sending an infinitesimal amount of prana through the room he located the source of the voice and came across a mop of white hair that was weakly struggling from under its location of mystic codes. He reached into the pile and pulled out an old man in a brown coat and clothes.

"Thank you, young man," the old man said. "If I had buried under there for much longer I would have been finished."

"Yeah, that's nice," Shirou said looking at a mystic code that absorbed water and turned it into coral, trying to figure out how he could recreate it.

"Oh, you're looking at that old thing. I obtained that from a Persian magus. What do you think about it?"

"It's quite nifty," Shirou replied. "It's some weird cross between alchemy and Taiji. I truly haven't seen something like this before."

The old man blinked looking quite surprised. "That's quite impressive youngster," he said. "What can you tell me about this one?" he said pointing to a whirling dream catcher.

Shirou's eye's raised as he looked towards the relatively innocuously looking ornament. "No way," he said. "How is that even possible? That somehow harnesses the sixth imaginary factor. Oh, I see." He crossed his arms. "It uses residual prana as a medium to convey desires. That means it would only work in a place like this. It's revolutionary but incomplete."

"What about this one," the man said looking very excited.

"A baby Hydra," Shirou exclaimed. "Wow that would be quite deadly even to me."

"How about a job," the man said enquiringly.

"Nah," Shirou replied. "But I'll gladly discuss mystic codes with you. I'll even show you some of my own work."

xxx

Another three hours later Shirou emerged from the old magus' workshop with two mystic codes that he had been convinced to part with. They both had a riveting discussion and Shirou had sold a few minor mystic codes that he had never quite got right to the man. Still even with the exchange Shirou had ended up with a twenty-thousand pound deficit. Still it was nothing compared to jewelcraft. And his two mystic codes, a scale that somehow collected and stored mystery more efficiently than usual and a flashlight that shone red in the presence of "evil."

What exactly the thing defined as evil escaped Shirou's current knowledge but the old man stated that since he acquired and brought it to the association it hadn't stopped shining vermillion so Shirou knew it was at least doing great at its job.

The problem was that Shirou was now growing hungry after three hours of discussing mystic codes and two hours of lecturing. He sniffed the air making out the faint sense of food. The problem was that his sense of smell was, well not awful but compared to his other senses and to people like Arcueid, Sumire and Nine it was pretty terrible.

He walked forward smelling the sound of the food until he came across he came across a "cafeteria". He thought cafeteria between two massive quotation marks because there were still red carpets and those damnable gold framed paintings. Many people in fancy suits, that probably cost many times his own, lingered around various tables occasionally eating and speaking in low susurrations about topics that Shirou didn't particularly care for.

He scanned the room looking for somebody who at least looked remotely interesting to talk to. As his eyes scoured the area for someone separate from the boring politicians he came across a brown haired woman who wore a pony-tail and a white waistcoat and she was staring straight at him.

Intrigued he strode through the room passed the various uninteresting conversations about secret alliances and inferior magecraft and held her gaze as he drew towards her table. As he arrived a man who had stood next by the side of the table, but he had written off as uninteresting, moved forward to stop him. However with a moderate application of prana channelled into his glove the man's own blood betrayed him and he stepped back while simultaneously withdrawing his hand.

Sitting down he placed his hands on his knees and leaned forward eye's still locked with the woman.

"Kurio Shine," he announced himself smiling all the while.

The woman still showed no emotion beyond a slight raise of the eyebrow as he bypassed her guard and sat down. The man once again moved to apprehend him but a small gesture from the woman and he backed down and retreated to her side once again.

The woman regarded him for a few seconds and then, "Lorelei Barthomeloi," she said.

Shirou whistled, "The queen of Clocktower herself," he said intrigued. He eyed her up and down and then smiled. "I wonder if you measure up."

A gasp came from the side and out of the corner of his eye Shirou saw one of the servants drop a bottle of wine. With barely any prana channelled into his glove he manipulated the wine in the bottle and levitated up the bottle onto the table. Turning back to look at Lorelei he noticed that her face was blank as usual but their glowed genuine hatred in her eyes.

Shirou smirked. He was tickled pink that somebody hated him so soon after meeting him and after so few words also. He poured some wine into a glass stood up and turned to leave. However he suddenly became aware of a rapier lightly pressing up against his back.

"Mr. Shine," the flat voice came from behind him. "Are you really going to leave after such a challenge?"

"You know for a moment there I was," Shirou said as he gulped down the wine. "Is this the bit where we have a massive battle destroying life, limb and property," he said his voice not quite containing his eagerness.

"No," came the reply, "If we were to fight somebody like you here I would end up losing a sizeable number of magi which is not ideal." Shirou turned his head to look her in the eyes and he noticed that beneath her burning distaste there was a minuscule amount of excitement buried deep down.

"No," she continued. "I will not attack you here. However later I will track you down and call you to account for your statement."

Shirou couldn't help it. At that statement his smile widened until his cheeks almost physically ached. Watching Lorelei's face pass hatred into a look of utter loathing he couldn't help himself.

"Inke," he said and at the brief look of confusion on her face he clarified. "Don't look for "Shine" look for "Inke". Then he turned around and strolled away but not before snatching a bowl of soup from the table of some self-important looking twat and downing it in one gulp.

"I'll be waiting," he said and exited the room.

xxx

The man yawned as his eyes scanned the room. He had already been on guard duty for over six hours and he was starting to flag. It didn't help that nobody ever attempted to steal anything from this room. The place he guarded was full of various sealing designates that had been marked as non-urgent and sealed off for later study. Suddenly a scratching noise came from the side of the room and he perked up scanning the area.

A bit of movement caught his eye and he saw a black rat moving its arms and legs causing the scratching noise he heard earlier. Watching it for a second he sighed and then sent out a small burst of flame that incinerated the rodent. His eyes widened as he saw the creature turn into goo and then he felt a sharp pain in the neck and then everything faded to black.

Nine felt the small piece of black goo, that moments ago had been a rat, re-join him. Slinking forward he came across the locked door that was sealed by some form of bounded field preventing anybody from accessing it. Nine sighed and reached for the key that he had taken from the guard causing the door to unceremoniously open. The room that he entered was huge and looked more like a warehouse than a simple archival room. Trying to find the specific item was akin to looking for a needle in a haystack and it would take a single person days and days to locate it without having the specific knowledge of where it was located.

Fortunately Nine had an advantage. With a brief moment of concentration the figure of Nine was gone to be replaced by a multitude of hummingbirds that dispersed into the room hovering amongst the various items. After about thirty minutes the numerous hummingbirds merged into the form of Nine in front of an innocuous yet clearly labelled box. After a few seconds of examination Nine picked up the box and left the room.

xxx

Strolling through the halls of this venerable research association Shirou found himself wondering what to do. Earlier he had repeated his success at teaching with a very popular rune class that would likely stick in the minds of those amateurs for a long, long time. But despite the fun he had while teaching he had very little desire to repeat his stunt a third time.

As he walked trying to find something to do he overheard a name that he wasn't expecting. Some young girl magus was talking to her tutor and she called him Lord EL-Melloi. As far as he knew his father had destroyed the last lord of that family as well as obliterated their magic crest. For them to even be a person publically acknowledged as Lord El-Melloi that means that they must have somehow recovered in the eight years since the end of the war. That was truly incredible for the normally dull and slow moving magus of the association. It must mean they had a genius working for them.

Turning around and walking to the dour looking black-haired man he inserted himself into the conversation with all the grace and elegance of a double-decker bus inserting itself into a brick wall.

"Yo," he said. "How's that magic crest," he continued. "Has it significantly recovered from being shot by a Kiritsugu Emiya's conceptual weapon?" he elaborated.

"How did you…" the man started his eyes widened.

"Yeah, I've heard the stories of the grail war," Shirou said steamrolling over the man's questions. "The crest was all but destroyed by Kiritsugu Emiya's Thompson Contender. In addition his death should have led to the El-Melloit going destitute. So imagine my surprise when I run into one whose actually still a Lord."

Shirou chuckled to himself ignoring the blatantly shocked look on the man's face. "So spill," he said as his chuckling subsided. "How on earth are the El-Melloi still a thing?"

The man was looking at Shirou with a slightly disturbed look now. "I have no obligation to tell you," he said turning to walk away.

"Hey," Shirou said and his voice was absolutely devoid of any remaining humour. "Are you sure you want to do that? I'm not fond of aristocratic magi in general and the El-Melloi in specific. If you continue to walk away we will see if the El-Melloi can survive the loss of another head."

The black haired man turned slowly towards Shirou his face grave. "By the way my name is Kurio Shine, and you are," Shirou inquired continuing as if he hadn't just threatened to end him if he didn't stop.

"You must be quite confident to make that threat openly in the heart of the Clocktower," the man said his voice containing only calm analysis and not a trace of fear.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure I could kill you and leave with no repercussions," Shirou said honestly.

"I see," the man said. "My name is Waver Velvet although I'm known as Lord El-Melloi II. I participated in the Holy Grail War by stealing a relic from the previous Lord El-Melloi. When he died in the war and his magic crest was destroyed I became his replacement as a penance and rebuilt up the family."

Shirou clapped upon hearing such a concise explanation. "Brilliant, an explanation that quickly and efficiently exhausts my curiosity. You must be a great magus to be able to rebuild a magic crest as well as recover the reputation of the family after the previous head was so unceremoniously wiped." He crossed his arm and tapped his foot. "Wait a minute Waver Velvet. From what I heard described of you in the previous grail war you sounded like a bit of a pussy but now you're actually pretty calm and cool. Good job," Shirou said and gave him thumbs up. "Well I've lost all interest in killing you, have a nice life."

Shirou turned away from him and made to walk off when he was confronted by the sight of Nine walking towards him followed by some sort of demure maidlike homunculus. He read the creature history overcome by curiosity and broke out into peals of laughter.

"Mister Shine I have retrieved the item and made the acquaintance of this delightful creature," Nine said.

Shirou's laughing stopped and he wiped the tears from his eyes. He nodded to Waver excused himself as he brushed past the young female magus who stood petrified having listened to the conversation between Lord El-Melloi II. He walked up to Nine, grabbed hold of his faithful servant and teleported them both back to Fuyuki.

 **Author Note: My twentieth chapter. I wanted to have another breather chapter and I also wanted to do something at the Clocktower hence the most nonchalant invasion ever. Next chapter is the next arc.**

 **Guest Yup the puberty truck, that's all it is. I currently have no plans for Shiki Ryougi.**

 **Archleone I really love your reviews. Okay, I use breather chapters/filler to flesh out the character. Most parts of the date I used to indicate a characters views or personality. That discussion about love was meant to be used to contrast Arcueid and Shirou's views in life with Arcueid displaying her idealistic views and Shirou displaying his own idealistic views. However that paragraph was used to strongly divorce such aspects as romance and sex from love in Shirou's mind. He implies that you can love somebody without having sex with them and have sex without loving them. As for harems who knows. Me I do.**

 **The Touko thing was something that was blown way out of proportion. In the words of comedic songwriter Bo Burnham everybody needs to lower their expectations. The problem was that with both characters personality there was no way I could have created drama without making them act out of character.**

 **Lastly, yes keep believing in the Rin pairing. That way when I blindside you with the actual pairing you'll be suprised. Shirou/Ort-chan OTP.**

 **KRKing Caren Ortensia I already said he would get along well with. Narbareck, the hatesex would be incredible.**

 **Other Guest That sentence implies a different thing entirely though. Nine is actually closer to Leysritt in that he doesn't have much sense of self and bases his actions on what would make master happy. He antagonizes him because Shirou enjoys it. Kiritsugu's death was something that was inevitable when he stepped into the trap. He knew it and his opponent knew it. I didn't feel like describing a hopeless battle from Kiritsugu's side where he knows he was going to die but just wanted to get as many good hits in. I feel like it would be depressing to write and to read so I skipped to him dying with a smile on his face.**

 **Piddle Hmm. Do you know Arturia can walk on water. #Actually pretty canon.**

 **Isoroku Let's see. Arcueid may or may not have loved him. She's not experienced enough to know. She is however content with their current relationship. Shirou goes by the name Inke which is currently the name of no Magi family. Moreover he does not practice magecraft in front of Rin. Magic, yes but she can't perceive magic. Lastly more in a few chapters but the thought of two experienced executors just disappearing on her land did not sit well with Rin.**

 **Please read and review.**


	21. Fuyuki Drown under wet

Shirou exited the world of dreams to the feeling of strong arms encircling him. His eyes snapped open reveal the sleeping face of Arcueid Brunestud. She looked angelic in that state even as she stayed in a condition of absolutely no motion akin to the dead. A cough sounded out to his side and he inclined his head to once again see the familiar smiling face of Nine.

"It's school now Master Inke, if you don't leave the Lady Arcueid and hurry up to have breakfast you will not arrive on time. "

"I'd like to get up," Shirou stated, "but as you can see I'm a bit restrained."

"You can teleport Master Inke," Nine said flatly. "While Lady Arcueid is quite strong I'm afraid you're not restrained in the least."

Shirou simply sighed and disappeared from the bed. He appeared in the kitchen a moment later. The breakfast table was littered with booze giving a strong indication that his favourite dead apostle was here and that she most likely brought her protégé along with her.

Shirou couldn't sense them in the house so he conjectured that they must have left earlier. He finished his breakfast quickly as Nine did not exaggerate when he said that he stood on the cusp of lateness. Shirou dashed from the room quickly changing and performing his other morning activities. As he rushed to leave his house he was stopped by Nine who stood in the doorway.

"Be careful," his servant said. "This town feels hostile. I tried out your so-called evil detecting light and it has been glowing red for the past few hours and getting brighter." The progeny of Nrvnqsr Chaos regarded him seriously. "I don't know what is happening specifically but I would advise you to keep your eyes and ears open.

Shirou nodded to Nine in acknowledgement and walked quickly out of the house and to Homuhara academy. While he was walking he kept his senses sharp and true to Nine's observation he could feel an almost physical oppression. The closest thing he could compare it to was the park in Shinto. A heavy duty bounded field that made the world feel very different.

Even Homuhara was no exception to this heavy atmosphere and as he entered the main gate the oppression seemed to grow to some extent. Students huddled around corners and kept to the walls spoke in whispers and quiet murmurings. He scanned the schoolyard for anybody who may have the slightest clue what was going on and he came across two people. Sakura and Rin representing the Matou and Tohsaka families respectively. They both possessed good quality circuits and were the heir to their respective families so they should at least have some idea of what curse had overtaken the city.

Slinking up behind Tohsaka from her blind spot he greeted her. "Morning Twintails, he said enjoying her startled reaction."

"As usual Inke," she spat out her voice full of venom, "you refuse to show the common decency of referring to me by my name and I'm getting tired of it."

Shirou's eyes widened as he heard her unusually vicious rebuttal, "Bad night," he said inquiringly. "You don't usually get this fed-up with me before the third period."

"Yeah," Tohsaka said with great reluctance now looking quite shamefaced. "It's been a bit hard lately."

"Yeah you look like you've been pushing yourself too hard lately," Shirou said. "You should relax and be careful. There's some bad vibes going on today."

"Yes," Rin blinked and eyed Shirou. "So you also noticed it. The whole town seems nervous. I even heard stories of some people spotting a dragon or something at the river near the temple."

"A dragon down by the river," Shirou repeated. "I have to go see that."

"Oh really," Rin smiled sweetly with the faint scent of victory about it. "So the infamous Shirou Inke believes in dragons."

Shirou scoffed, "Whereas I suppose you deride things such as dragons and magic as fantasies for children. Well I don't care how immature and nonsensical belief in magic is so you can stop trying to convince me otherwise."

At this he savoured the expression of Rin's face that appeared to be engaged in a severe case of mental gymnastics and went to talk to the other mystical lady of Homuhara High.

"Hey Sakura," he said speaking to the more pleasant magus. He had built up an acquaintanceship with her over the years due to his interest over her particular nature. He referred of course to the feeling of utter death that radiated from the girl. While he had initially promised himself that he wouldn't inspect her without her showing further signs for a mix of reasons such as respecting her privacy and not wanting to spoil any surprises in the future if she did turn out to be some form of eldritch god every year he grew more concerned and he resolved to find out her big secret before the grail war.

"Ah, good morning Inke," Sakura said with the tone of a demure housewife. "How are you this morning?"

"Feeling pretty poor actually Sakura," Shirou replied. "And how many times have I told you to call me Shirou."

"Okay, Shirou," Sakura said but he knew it wouldn't be the last time she forgot to call him that. "But why are you feeling so bad today. Is everything okay at home?"

"Yeah everything's fine at home Sakura," Shirou replied honestly. "Just feel as if today has some bad mojo. It feels like there is a grey sheen over the world."

Sakura bit her lip looking quite worried. "It does seem like a pretty depressing day. Everybody does seem moody."

Shirou and Sakura stood there in companionable silence for the next few minutes before the bell rang sounding that everybody should head into the classrooms.

xxx

The day dragged on without improvement. In fact to Shirou's observant eyes it appeared to get even worse. People became fearful shadows of themselves and the whispers continued. At break Shirou decided to follow up on the one lead he had so far.

"Issei," Shirou waved at the stoic monk in training. The head of the student council waved back slightly less enthusiastically. Their relationship was odd to say the least. Shirou's eccentric behaviour, lazy attitude and slight propensity to raise hell on occasions all while getting some of the best marks in the school annoyed the guy immensely and he often lectured him. However Issei was one of the few characters in this school that Shirou generally liked. His constant battles with Rin never failed to amuse the young magician and his serious personality was a nice break from most of the other people Shirou often found himself acquainted with.

"So Issei I've heard you got a dragon down by the temple," Shirou said grinning as he watched the solemn look on Issei's face be replaced by a look of abject surprise. "You've been holding out on me man."

"Where did you hear that," Issei demanded.

"Oh students were apparently talking about it," Shirou replied. "I personally heard this from Tohsaka."

"That witch is spreading rumours again," Issei grumbled to himself. "There is no dragon Shirou everything you heard is nothing but slander and bad rumours."

"Rumours, huh," Shirou contemplated to himself. "It was good seeing you Issei. We should talk more."

He turned away from the Student Council President. "I'm suddenly feeling quite unwell. I'll take the rest of the day off." After those last words he strode quickly down the hallway.

As soon as he turned the corner and left the sight of his bespectacled friend he disappeared and reappeared back in his house. Clutching his pendant he intoned a now very familiar spell and went to track down the other people in his house.

xxx

Yukika Saegusa walked home alone. The sun had just set a few minutes ago and a gentle breeze wafted through the night air. She normally didn't walk home so late and especially not alone but she had to clean up the clubroom today and both her friends were not available due to different reasons. Kane had to leave early for a family function and Maki was feeling sick and took the day off of school.

Suddenly a breeze blew across the street and she heard the sound of quiet footsteps right behind her. She whirled around and saw an empty street only a few flickering lightbulbs keeping the roads from being plunged into total darkness. She stood petrified the small fear that something was wrong magnified in her and for a few moments she found herself battling to breathe. After what seemed like a lifetime she choked down oxygen and felt her lungs expand and the fear begin to slowly wash away. Looking up she once again saw an empty street.

She sighed to herself berating herself from getting worked up. It was a trying day but that was no excuse to be acting like a frightened child. She turned back to once again go home and out of the corner of her eye she saw a shadow looming over her.

Her composure broke and she ran down the streets like her life depended on it. Her lungs burnt and her legs started to ache but she had no thought to lament her lack of fitness. Her mind had long snapped and her body kept moving on impulse robotically denying her impending death. She didn't notice the increased steps sounding behind her. She did not register the hot breath that tickled the back of her neck. A strip of her jacket disappeared and the cold wind bit into her skin but still she didn't register it.

Turning into the alleys to escape this presence she still had not even set eyes upon her pursuer but her body instinctively knew with utmost certainty that if she stopped for just a second she would be torn to shreds and devoured completely. Her existence replaced by a newspaper lamenting a girl gone missing and a weeping family. She didn't notice the gnashing of jaws behind her, she didn't notice the feeling of her legs starting to give up on her, she didn't notice that the alleyway that she was herded into contained a dead end.

She did notice when her chase came to an abrupt stop as she slammed into an incredibly hard torso. Falling to the ground she was completely knocked out of her frenzied panic as she looked up to see the face of Shirou Inke. For a split second she thought she saw absolute focus on his face. A mask of solemnity so unlike his normal state that for a moment she couldn't believe it was her class mate.

Then that look faded so quickly that Yukiko almost dismissed it as a dream and the normal Shirou was back. "Hello Yuki," he said. She had long ago given her permission to use her nickname. Shirou was quite a nice guy and she liked him. Platonically of course, absolutely platonically, nothing more. She had no fantasies of Shirou.

Shirou offered her his hand and she gratefully took it suddenly aware of just how tired she was. Her muscles ached and she was flushed with exertion she suddenly realised self-consciously.

"I better walk you home," he said. "It's not safe for you out on the roads at this time of night."

She nodded and followed him out of the alley.

She didn't notice the various cut destroyed body parts in the alley vanish just out of her sight.

xxx

They were walking for another five minutes before Shirou veered off the route to her house and took them into a nearby park.

"Where are we going," she asked timidly.

"We're being followed," Shirou replied. "I would rather confront them here."

Yukika started to slightly panic at the thought of being chased down again but she suddenly felt a hand upon her shoulder and she looked up to see Shirou smiling at her. "Don't worry," he said. "I'll protect you."

When he came to a stop and he reached into his jacket and pulled out a gun Yukika almost lost her composure again. Only her trust for him prevented her from panicking at the murder weapon.

Shirou turned and pointed the gun into the shadows. "You can come out now," he said.

From the shadows a beautiful woman with the brightest green eyes Yukika had ever seen appeared.

"My, my, my Shirou as aggressive as ever," the woman said with shocking familiarity.

"Narbareck," Shirou said surprising Yukika. "No you're not Narbareck, you're just a copy using her image. It's a good image but doesn't quite match up to the real thing."

"So confident," the woman said and smiled. In an instant there was a large clang right in front of Yukika's face. She jumped back and saw a knife lying on the ground in front of her. "I couldn't even see it," was the last thought that went through her mind before she passed out the exertion of the night proving too much for her.

xxx

"Get her out of here," Shirou yelled into the empty night.

"At once Master," the night said as it coalesced into the form of Nine. He picked up Shirou's classmate and gently carried her off into the darkness.

"You know I wasn't absolutely sure up until you did that. Narbareck would never have attacked an innocent civilian like that. The church would be beyond livid at her," Shirou shook his head.

The fakes smile dimmed a bit before it came back in full force. Black keys were fired at Shirou in their dozens in a genuine barrage against Shirou. Their speed far surpassed the speed of sound being closer to that of a sniper rifle. In addition their force was immense, all of the deflected sunk into the ground to the extent that even their hilts were buried. This salvo would be able to kill all but the strongest of Dead Apostles within seconds. However not a single black key reached Shirou. As soon as they black keys were materialized they were countered by an even greater number of jets of water that tracked and obliterated every single one. Black keys fell to the ground cut into multiple pieces.

"Is that all you have," Shirou said yawning falsely. "You're still not quite as good as the original."

Suddenly her left eye glowed white and Shirou found himself in an entirely different place. He barely had enough time to create a layer of ice before his body was riddled with over twenty black keys.

"Space, that's it," he remarked to herself. "Her white eye controls space and is able to teleport anything that she lays her hand upon. Still while I was initially saying that she was inferior to the original to make her lose her cool it seems she really is."

"Really," he said out loud. "The real Narbareck could teleport a True Demon, attack immediately and control a reality marble at the same time. You really are just a third rate knock-off."

The copies face contorted and suddenly Shirou felt as if his perception of the world had changed. Now her right eye was black and Shirou idly realised that she now had [Alien Stomach World] in her hands.

"Time," he noted idly. "Still not being used very well."

She finished the chant and the world materialised around him. Immediately nerves descended from the floor and ceiling to electrocute him, tentacles on the floor tried to wrap around him and the water that he was now surrounded by started to burn him.

"Goodbye Shirou," the imposter said.

White blobs materialized around him as the world he found himself in tried its utmost to destroy him but all this caused Shirou to do was to sigh.

"I would like to pick apart why you're such a poor copy but I don't have time for this," Shirou lamented. "You were attempting to copy my fears and you somehow managed to half-ass it and try to hard at the same time. Goodbye, goodnight [Amessunu Istenis].

At his last words the world around him was placed under the pressure of the abyss and after a second the domain collapsed. The cheap copy of a dead man's reality marble not being able to hold up to the power of his ultimate move.

It was actually anti-climactic in the extreme. The copy of Narbareck died instantly and all that was left was the park with a few gouges in it, the black keys having disappeared. Shirou carefully released [Amessunu Istenis] making sure not to obliterate the park while he was at it.

Once that was done he recognized the presence of one of the other teams approaching his position. From the darkness Satsuki and Sumire emerged with the younger woman carrying a pale and sweating Sakura of all people and the older woman carrying some sort of alcoholic beverage.

"What happened," Shirou said as he looked upon the writhing form of the young woman.

"We were patrolling as we discussed," Satsuki started looking confused and alarmed. "Then we came across this girl cowering away from this other version of herself with white hair and red eyes, kind of like a somewhat older version of Illya. We quickly identified that as the curse that was feeding off her dread and then attacked." Satsuki shivered for a moment. "It was really hard," she said.

At Shirou's silent query Satsuki continued. "She kept sending out these shadows at us that devoured everything. It was only because of my Depletion Garden that I was able to survive by sucking up the mana they were sustaining themselves on. Then something, some kind of monster came out of her and then from it black mud spawned and the entire world seemed to be drowning in curses and then… Sumire did something and all the shadows disappeared."

Both Shirou and Satsuki turned to look at Sumire. Satsuki's face showed pure wonder and expectation while Shirou just had a slight look of disbelief.

For once in her life Sumire looked upset even with a bottle in her hand, "Well I am a dead apostle ancestor you know, it's not just an empty title. Anyway," she said changing the subject. "Something is seriously wrong with that girl. I would recommend that you scan her at once."

"Yeah," Shirou mused partly to himself. "Perhaps I should have already scanned her." Shirou examined her and then used the forth to read her concept. The reading continued for about thirty seconds and after the first five Shirou stopped showing any facial expression instead defaulting to the solemn face he showed when he lost the ability to feel any humour in the situation.

"Well," he finally said. "Please place her on the ground Satsuki." His voice was perfectly calm and reasonable which was a far cry from the normally laughing or smiling Shirou. Satsuki did as he said and lay the girl down on the grass.

Shirou placed his left hand on the right side of his chest and drew forth a side from his breast. Without any ceremony Shirou stabbed the sword into the girl on the floor. Satsuki almost jumped at him before she was held back by Sumire the older vampire simply watching the procedure.

The sword sunk into the chest of the purple haired woman with no blood and almost immediately the heavy breathing and feverish squirming eased and the woman seemed to regain colour before their eyes. Satsuki relaxed at seeing the effects. Which was why the next part caught her so off guard.

Shirou's hand penetrated her chest causing a terrible noise as the bone cracked and the meat was sliced through. In an instant Shirou's hand was out and he was holding a wriggling worm. The worm was crushed and Shirou thrust his hand into the young woman's body and pulled out another one. The same procedure repeated itself over a dozen times before Shirou stood up. His hand was covered in blood and gore and Satsuki had to look away and cover her mouth lest she lose her lunch.

His patient was still healing however. The wounds seemed to close up instantly with some kind of mesh but skin was growing over the mesh even as they watched.

"Nine," Shirou said. "Have you returned her safely to her house?"

"Yes Master Inke," Nine replied as he stepped out from behind one of the trees in the park. "I was unable to modify her memory however as it is a skill I could never learn."

"It is of no consequence Nine," Shirou replied his face set into an emotionless mask. "We have much bigger fish to sauté. Take Sakura to my house." He turned away and started to leave. "The rest of you should continue patrolling. I have a feeling this night is going to get far worse."

"And where will you be going while we are hopping around town searching for these nightmares," Sumire asked before taking a swig of her… brandy? Shirou guessed.

"I'm going on a long overdue de-worming operation," Shirou said and then he disappeared.

 **Author Note The start of the last arc before the Grail War. I'm not going to do reviews today because is kinda fucking about on that one. I'm not one hundred percent happy about this one. While I have pretty much planned this arc out I think that writing this story for so long is kind of draining me. As a solution I'm going to do something I thought I wouldn't and either start my second story simultaneously or to write out a relatively long one-shot.**

 **I do actually see the reviews even if you don't so please read and review. Thought I might as well do this. Shirou is actually getting stronger as he ages. The last two chapters took place when he was fifteen and now in this chapter he is sixteen. His stats compared to a servant now are as follows below.**

 **Strength C+**

 **Endurance A-**

 **Agility D+++**

 **Magical Power A**

 **Luck B+**

 **Noble Phantasm EX**


	22. Efishent Krilling

The streets of Fuyuki were mercifully quiet tonight besides the occasional abomination that appeared in front of the patrolling duo. A half-formed creature that with glowing eyes and charred skin appeared and grasped at the smaller of the duo but it was immediately shot down by four birds that were composed of wire by the white-haired teenager. Smirking she sent another barrage to a nearby humanoid that emerged from the ash and just as quickly returned to it.

Two more were executed by the blonde haired woman before they were even formed their remains briefly bursting into flames. Any surrounding fires started by the collective abominations were immediately quenched by the True Ancestor's supreme control over air.

"There are a lot of these burning corpses aren't there," Arcueid said contemplating as she destroyed another corpse.

"Apparently there were rumours about the dead killed in the fire nine years ago not being able to rest in peace," Illya replied. "At least they're better than those tentacles monsters that showed up earlier. I have to be careful about tentacle monsters." At this she blushed. "I'm saving my body for somebody special after all."

"Oh," Arcueid said with genuine innocence. "You mean like Shirou, he's pretty special." Arcueid looked up wistfully as if she was recollecting something great. "And he really knows how to treat a body." At this Illya was getting redder and redder and she looked about ready to attack the ancient True Ancestor. "Yeah, it's very hard to get out of a lock once he puts you in it."

"Oh," Illya said. "Oh," she repeated looking dumbfounded. Then she blushed. "I thought you were talking about stuff like sex and all that."

Arcueid just looked at her confused, "That's what I wa…" Then she stopped and tilted her head.

From a side alley emerged a man with a white open shirt and black pants. He stood there for a moment staring at Arcueid.

"Get back Illya," the blond vampire said actually snarling a bit as she spoke. "This is not going to be a fight that you want to be caught anywhere near."

Illya was an exceptionally powerful magus and she knew it. She was also quite strong at magecraft and she knew it. However she also knew that when a good candidate for the strongest in the world tells you to retreat you should probably listen.

"Arcueid," the being began. "How pitiful you look. No you're just a copy of her, a degraded fake." As he spoke lightning began to form around him until the very air crackled and the air reeked of ozone.

"Roa," Arcueid began. "Wait," she said adopting a thinking pose. "Sorry, I was told never to talk to dead men."

Then the True Ancestor dove into the lightning storm intent on ripping her hated progeny to ribbons.

xxx

Shirou whistled as he walked towards the Matou household. The seething and frothing ocean of rage had subsided and now his mind was akin to a sea of tranquillity. Truthfully the only feeling that Shirou had right now was a slight sense of melancholy at the momentary absence of his sword. He had it for one-and-a-half years now and despite knowing that it would return to him once the job was done the temporary loss made him feel slightly empty. Nolava was at the moment his greatest creation. It was a healing artefact that besides being stored inside him had absolutely no resemblance to Avalon. It was a sword, Avalon was a sheath. Avalon restored things to their perfect condition by employing fae magic, Nolava created a mesh by using incredibly advanced projection magecraft and by liberal use of concept manipulation caused the mesh to grow and become skin and muscle. Avalon could transport users to the realm of the Fae, Nolava could transport users into a world of pain as not only did the sword have strong penetrating power it had a special ability whereby anything that was stabbed would sprout metal at Shirou's command.

Shirou realised idly that he had arrived at the Matou mansion. He had spent the entire time contemplating his absent sword and had forgotten about the things that he should have really concentrated on, namely Zouken Matou's imminent death. He shrugged to himself; maybe he should just hold off on planning Zouken Matou's murder and do what comes naturally.

He still meant to murder him of course; there was more chance of Sumire going on the wagon then of Zouken surviving the night. But maybe he'd just spontaneously decide how to murder him when he saw him.

Walking up to the Matou's door he ignored the comparatively pathetic bounded field. While it was decent for detecting and had some minor countermeasures against foreign magecraft it was nothing compared to the Einzbern's or Touko's or his own. Strolling up to the door he knocked three times before waiting for a reply. After a few minutes waiting the door was opened by a bored looking Shinji who managed to look simultaneously surprised and unimpressed at the person standing by the door.

"What do you want," he said rather ungraciously sneering at Shirou.

Shirou and Shinji did not really get along. While Shirou had honestly forgotten what first started their hostilities neither of them had done their best to reconcile. Rather Shinji had done his best to annoy and hinder Shirou whenever he had the opportunity and Shirou had in turn taken it upon himself to crush him whenever possible. For a moment Shirou considered just killing him along with Zouken but he ultimately decided against it. While some might claim he deserved it for what he did to his sister ultimately he would leave it up to Sakura to extract whatever revenge she felt like.

"I'm here to talk to your grandfather," Shirou said only semi-politely.

"Grandfather's busy," Shinji said abruptly and slammed the door in his face.

For a moment Shirou just stood there blinking. "That boy really has no survival instincts does he," he mused to himself. "Hopefully he learns them in the next few seconds or he may wind up being collateral.

Shirou then raised his hand and then punched the door causing it to shatter into hundreds of pieces and fly across the room. As he did this he reached out to the bounded field that turned to restrain him and shattered it. Stepping forward into the room ignoring the cowering blue-haired boy he stared up at the withered old man who stood on the stairway staring down at him with a look of concealed surprise.

"Who are you to enter my house in such a rude manner," the man said looking outwardly calm but to Shirou's eyes and magic he was trying to keep a grip on the situation.

"Are you Zouken Matou," Shirou said despite already knowing the answer. It was best to follow the procedures on this one lest he end up killing the wrong person by accident.

"Guilty," the old man replied. "Now you haven't told me why you've so suddenly burst down my door. Are you with the mage association?" he said trying to wheedle information out of Shirou. "There is no need for a member to enter my home in such a violent manner. I have not broken any of the laws required by the society."

"That you immediately believe I'm an executor of some sort speaks more about you then it does about me," Shirou said shaking his head and denying the execution. "No I'm simply here to murder you."

At this Zouken started to laugh, Shirou idly noticed it was an ugly thing full of mocking and cruel enjoyment. "So you came alone to face me. This is the reason why I had lost contact with the worms in that girl earlier. You killed her, found out the truth and now have come to try and kill me." His laughter resumed with a frightening intensity. "You have no idea what you've cost me boy."

At this statement the mansion came alive. From beneath the furniture, from the doors, and even coming through spots in the walls that opened up to let them in, an army flowed through the room. This army consisted of countless green armoured worms with stubby bodies and glinting teeth. Within seconds the area was filled with thousands of them surrounding Shirou signalling an impending orgy of violence.

Shirou scanned the room taking in the countless mass that surrounded him and sighed. "This is why I shouldn't get my hopes up," he said. "I was expecting a good fight at least but now it looks like it's just going to be a chore."

"You're so confident you can triumph over me youngster." Whatever image of calm serenity the old magus originally possessed was lost as his skin rippled and his words were tinged with rage. "I was mastering magecraft before your grandfather had even learnt his first words. Like all other impetuous youths you will become food for familiars."

At that the collective swarm rushed at him, a mass of crawling insects with large sharp teeth Shirou just sighed in annoyance. Within a second the swarm were upon him biting down and tearing at the soft flesh; or attempting to anyway.

"Perhaps you don't understand the situation," Shirou said as the collective swarm of worms failed utterly to penetrate his skin due to a combination of his high levels of mystery and his ever present use of [Ryuujin's Perfect Body]. "You're dead. If the incarnation of human death, Primate Fucking Murder was to bust through that wall right now it wouldn't lower your chance of survival any." He paused in contemplation even as worms broke their teeth trying to penetrate his skin. "In fact why am I even talking to you, I need to start taking my own advice and stop conversing with the dead."

At that he clicked his fingers and an ocean exploded into being in the Matou Manor.

xxx

Arcueid was actually having a bit of a hard time. This was definitely one of the latest incarnations of Roa. In fact the power was almost comparable to the first incarnation that required both her and the church to defeat. Everywhere she stepped an explostion of electricity arose and zapped her. And lightning spells were shot out by the hundreds. It was a testament to how powerful of a mage Roa really was that the copies lightning did not automatically dissipate upon reaching her skin but actually managed to tickle her.

As it was Roa was losing. His speed and strength were both lower than her as evidenced by the fact that she had twice tore him in twain and multiple times had inflicted damage that would have killed somebody without an apostles regeneration.

Her opponent disengaged to recover stamina but it was ineffective as Arcueid charged straight through his morass of lightning and delivered an uppercut that tore his head straight off his body. In the middle of her follow up she was hit by a blast of lightning much stronger than all the others before. If the others before were a tickle then this one was a punch; enough to send her back a step when she wasn't prepared for it but not enough to seriously harm her.

"Overload," the Roa copy intoned and Arcueid felt a slight shift in the nature of reality. A sudden tingling in her teeth indicated that the air was much more charged than she previously thought. "Behold the pinnacle of my magecraft. Long ago before I first transformed into a vampire I had created a spell that did nothing but amplify the power of other spells. Throughout my incarnations whenever I regained enough of my memory I further worked to improve my magecraft abilities and I created a trump card only one step below True Magic. Behold the Reality Marble Overload. Any spell I cast in this zone has its power dramatically increased."

From his hands came another lightning bolt that Arcueid casually dodged. The effect wasn't anything like an ordinary spell as the office building that it hit was pierced right through and the edges of the hole had melted from the heat.

"Do you see false True Ancestor," Roa said. "You are weaker than me. Have you given up attacking knowing the difference in our power?"

"No," Arcueid replied. "I was told never to interrupt monologues because they give valuable information." She tilted her head as if remembering something. "Unless they're stalling of course. Were you stalling?"

Roa actually spluttered. "Of course not," he said indignant. "I don't need to stall to defeat you."

"Oh," Arcueid said, "that's good. Now," she said her eyes sharpening, "I've realised how to defeat you." At this Arcueid smiled. "You're like an electric pokemon," she said and the very earth started to shake. "That means you're weak against ground attacks."

Arcueid stomped her feet and an enormous boulder emerged from the ground creating a massive hole in the road. Without preamble she grabbed the boulder, digging her hands into the surface of the giant rock and heaved the whole thing at the Roa duplicate. Much stronger lightning spells slammed into the projectile but all that resulted in was a partly melted hunk of tar and stone hitting Roa instead of a solid one. Struggling he was unable to free himself before a massive impact hit him on his chest driving him further into the earth. The massive impact was actually another boulder and then another and another until he was buried by the mass of stone. Being crushed and burnt by the coalition of minerals he suddenly felt the earth open up to receive him and he felt the welcoming touch of Gaia clear a space for him before the earthy walls came together and he knew no more.

xxx

Shirou was walking throughout the Matou manor in a bored manner. He shot another worm in a precise manner while minding his manners and preventing collateral damage to the manor. While he did not appreciate the manner of style the Matou went for it would be a poor manner of behaviour to destroy the house of his underclassmen and his manners were much too refined for that even if such minimal collateral damage went against his usual manner of operation, in a manner of speaking.

Getting bored with conducting wordplay in his head he took stock of the situation. Almost ninety percent of the worms were killed in the first five minutes as the man tried to pelt him with those familiars that clearly were not designed for withstanding the pressures of underwater combat. In seconds he had covered the room in water and simply crushed all the worms that were found in the water.

Surprisingly one of the casualties of the battle was Shinji. This filled Shirou with annoyance. While he hated the prick he decided to be the bigger man and leave his fate to his sister. Unfortunately his noble poetic justice was ruined because some of the worms went crazy and decided they wanted a Shinji sandwich. The last half-an-hour after the worms were dead had just been a bore. Shirou was a damn good sensor so it wasn't even a good game of hide-and-seek.

Hunting down Zouken consisted of him walking through the mansion and sniping any worm he saw with condensed needle sharp jets of water. He wasn't complaining that much because Zouken was filth and he would happily kill a "man" like him any day of the month.

Finally getting tired of the endless searching Shirou stopped and with a word of magic released a mist throughout the mansion that creeped in every crack and invaded any area no matter how sealed off. The precipitation firstly provided him a means to view the world by identifying all of the worms with his magic, and then allowed him to crush the worm individually by using a bit more of his prana.

He saved the basement for last and then he didn't so much as kill the worms as flood the structure obliterating everything within. Mentally making a note to buy Sakura a new basement he congratulated himself on a job well done. He was still slightly in disbelief that this all went on without his knowledge. He resolved to check out the Tohsaka mansion later and make sure that Rin wasn't locking up children to siphon prana into jewels or something.

Doing one last large scale check with [Poseidon's eye] he declared the town of Fuyuki worm free and left the manor into the cold night air. "Man," he said to himself in disbelief. "Who would have thought that the biggest nightmare I've faced so far this night had nothing to do with Zepia."

As he said those words he felt ripples of such intensity that they nearly pushed him back a step. Reaching out with [Poseidon's eye] he felt a ridiculous presence near Ryuudou Shrine. Cursing his big mouth he set off running even as a tremendously loud roar resounded out through the night.

 **Author Note: Not 100% satisfied with this chapter. First few days at new job so I'm writing this after work. Updates might slow a bit.**

 **Luckykittens He would be that one guy who continually doubts whether the show is any good and is impossible to show it to.**

 **CD123505 Yup**

 **The Rupture Hmm let me consider it.**

 **Archleone Thanks I've taken your advice and am currently writing a long one shot when I feel like relaxing from this story. It's Tatari. A Dead Apostle Ancestor that show up in Melty Blood. I'm really giving a lot of love to the super vampires aren't I.**

 **For the records like many things in JKR's works boggarts were just a plot device to drive the story forward. As an author she seems to have an immense hatred of explaining things or providing context to her creations which ironically makes the HP series the best source for fanfiction period.**

 **In additon yes canonically Lorelei is that bad. Shirou basically walked up to her implied she wasn't as good as her name suggested in the middle of her own powerbase and walked out. If he was a dead apostle she would have gone ahead and nearly everybody in that room would have died. I'll keep my ORT shipping for another story then.**

 **Rawrking Have you ever tried fucking somebody then living with them, neither have I but it's apparently not pleasant. They then make you do stuff like fix the car and mow the lawn and cook. Shirou only likes to do one of those things. He's taking a risk with Arcueid already. (I'm actually writing this right before Valentine's day I can't believe it.)**

 **And yes that is exactly what he is. I didn't include his ability to teleport in agility.**

 **123 Yes that's the point. I intended it to be a random fillery chapter. I mean absolutely no offense but was it a good random fillery chapter. A bad random fillery chapter. This is easily the most neutral comment I've got yet and I must applaud you sir, you made me smile.**

 **KRKing What I never said any of that? *Checks previous responses* Can you quote me?**

 **DPSS It's more like a pie he refuses to dip his fingers in at all. Illya gets frisky, he makes like a tree and gets the fuck out of there.**

 **ENDDRAGON369 Still haven't watched it.**

 **SyQadelic Statistics on how many Japanese have sex with close relatives is notoriously difficult to find over the internet.**


	23. The fight does tend to drag on

A vampire and a teenager walked down a street. While under most circumstances this would lead to the start of an almost certainly tasteless joke the situation was different here.

"Have you picked it up yet Satsu?" the older vampire asked her sky blue eyes focused on the younger woman.

"It's in the park isn't it? The girl replied to her teacher's words receiving a subtle nod for her troubles. "It feels old and dangerous," she said and wrinkled her brow in thought.

"Yup," Sumire replied. "When we get there I want you to stay back. You've gotten a lot stronger over the years but physically you're still not on the level of Arcueid, Shirou and I."

The woman turned and looked towards her young apprentice. "Your reality marble has the potential to be among the strongest I've ever seen. I've trained you in it over the past two years so that you can use it in a way that is more efficient than just dropping it and trying to wipe all away the mana." Sumire then smiled. "Just think of this as a final exam, except if you fail we die."

And at that thought she strode towards the Fuyuki Central Park the wellspring from which all the curses flowed. As they came to the park both Sumire and Satsuki found their expectations to be easily met and exceeded. A black tornado whirled through the park uprooting trees and even drinking from the ground.

To Satsuki's eyes it was destroying the park and biding its time. To Sumire's eyes however…

"It's absorbing the curse," Sumire said. She pulled a bottle of liquor from somewhere and downed it, a fact made all that more confounding by the fact that she was still wearing her standard bikini.

"Absorbing the curse," Satsuki repeated trying not to contemplate where Sumire drew her endless stores of liquor from. She appeared to search for the appropriate words which continued to elude her until only the completely inadequate sentence of, "That's bad right."

Sumire graciously ignored the idiocy of her previous sentence and merely replied. "Bad doesn't begin to cover it. A curse is unique among magecraft in that it relies primarily on emotion rather than powerful magecraft. In other words while more prana will increase the power of the curse, what really determines its quality is how much hatred it contains. The curse that infects the park is the highest in quality that I've ever seen and if the Night of Wallachia manages to absorb the data behind the curse," Sumire trailed off. Despite implying how absolutely fucked they were her voice remained calm and nonchalant.

"Well let's get started," she said moving forward.

"Wait, teacher," Satsuki tried to slow her down. "What are we doing?"

"Why we're trying to diffuse the curse. You drain the mana out of it and I'll try to set the atmosphere," the blond Dead Apostle Ancestor said casually.

"That sounds stupidly dangerous," Satsuki said. "Do you know how close I would have to be to that tornado?"

At that very moment a roar reverberated through the roads. The very sound sent a chill through both woman's bones and glass windows from the surrounding buildings cracked causing glass to rain down onto the floor below. An instant after the thunder a wave of mana rippled through the streets washing over both of them.

"It could be worse," Sumire said. "You could be whatever poor sap has to deal with that thing."

Breathing heavily Satsuki just turned and glared at her mentor, "Let's just deal with the tornado," she said.

xxx

Arcueid was running through the streets with Illya on her back and her arms around her neck holding on for dear life. The tentacle beasts that they had fought earlier were back again and more numerous than ever. Looking like some bizarre undersea creature they crowded around the True Ancestor as she ran and were instantly shredded by the blonde vampire or pounded by the rapid fire from the familiars of a moderately stressed Illya. The beasts spewed some sort of acid, but Shirou regularily did the same thing and all it took was a moderate application of her marble phantasm in order to prevent the mist from hitting the panicking teenager.

A bellow boomed across the sky causing a wave of mana to blast across the city. Arcueid came to a stop ignoring the white-haired girl's continued instructions to "protect her chastity" and "keep the tentacles away from her bits".

The True Ancestor was momentarily torn between the two conflicting sources of conflict; namely the park or the temple. While her senses were not very good compared to Shirou or Sumire as a True Ancestor she possessed an innate connection to the natural world. As such she more than anybody was aware of the massive amounts of mana that flowed through the leylines of Fuyuki. At the moment huge amounts of that nigh endless quantity were siphoned into two particular manifestations that took place at the opposite ends of the city.

"What do you think Illya," she said. Turning her head to look at the weight on her back she once again noticed that the delicate looking teenager was still shooting at the mass of monsters that were again beginning to gather around the vampire a look of utmost concentration on her face as her familiars sent bolt after bolt into the mass.

Arcueid sighed. The girl had stated quite vehemently that she wanted to help them despite their arguments otherwise. Shirou specifically had argued that despite her amazing circuits and very well made homunculus body she was by far the weakest of the group. Sumire had looked up from the bottle of her bottle to state that unlike every single other person of the group she had no battle experience. But still despite their objections she had soldiered on and eventually Shirou unhappy about the situation had assigned her to Arcueid as she was the person who could best guarantee her safety.

Arcueid snapped her fingers causing blades of wind to appear and bisect all of the surrounding creatures. Only once the last creature was dead did Illya finally calm down.

"So what do you think," Arcueid said. "To the temple or to the park?"

Illya opened her mouth to reply and then went pale. Her pallor had whitened to such an extent that it looked like her entire figure had been bleached. It was of no surprise however as even facing Illya Arcueid detected the surge of magical energy in her region. While it was smaller than the ones at the park and the temple it was still much bigger than the others they had encountered. It might have been bigger than Roa. Arcueid mentally revaluated her assessment of the phenomenon either it regained a lot of prana from defeated manifestations or its reserves were beyond ridiculous.

Turning around Arcueid beheld the monster that loomed over her. It was massive, the size of a skyscraper, easily exceeding any prior creature Arcueid had glimpsed. From its body flowed tentacles tipped with other tentacles. Its pallete was a mix of red blue and purple and the entire effect ended looking the world's worst made seafood dish.

At the sight of the creature Illya had gone almost comatose whispering "too many tentacles" to herself, leaving Arcueid to decide in which direction to go. "What would Shirou do in this situation," she thought to herself. "He would have said something like, "Oh well I guess it's rude to not try out something offered so sincerely" or "Fuck it. Let's do this."

Arcueid paused for a moment contemplating the scenario ahead of her.

"Fuck it let's do this," she said for herself and leapt at the horror, Illya hanging off her back.

xxx

Shirou skidded to a stop in front of the temple just taking a moment to behold the sight in front of him. While he would normally have teleported to save time, he made it a habit not to teleport into a sufficiently dangerous situation. He had deemed the gigantic build-up of mana to be sufficiently dangerous and he was morbidly glad to see that his initial estimate appeared to be correct.

In front of the Ryuudou temple sat a massive Japanese dragon, its three toes proved testament to its nationality as it lazed on the ground arms crossed underneath its head and eyes closed.

But it wasn't sleeping. As Shirou approached the dragon lazily opened its eyes and stood up yawning as it did so. With its long whiskers and sleepy face it looked like an old man but something prevented Shirou from laughing at it. This phantasmal beast, this dragon possessed something he had never felt before. Or something that he had though not in such quantities.

"Why," he said. "Why do you feel like Gilgamesh," Shirou asked knowing the answer was important but yet it eluded him. "What are you?"

The creature just stared at him and he instinctively knew that it both knew the answer and would not tell him. That the answer was important but that it was not yet time for him to know. He was still cooking and hearing that answer to soon would ruin his flavour. The sense of finality was so strong he immediately switched subjects.

"Are we going to fight," he said. The answer to this was a lazy but definite yes denoted by a simple nod of the head.

"Is there any way to avoid the fight," he said. The answer to this was a just as firm no.

"Why are you fighting me," Shirou asked. "Tatari seems to have summoned you but it is obviously failed to bind you otherwise you would have just immediately attacked me. What is it you hope to achieve?"

The dragon remained silent for a moment and then it spoke the words ancient and crackling with power. "There is no dragon on existence that would fail to point its fangs at one such as you," it spoke those chilling words.

Standing up as the first drops of rain began to fall it shook its long serpentine body momentarily exposing the countless threads of muscle that made up its body and then as the drizzle turned into a down pour, it struck.

A solid wall of ice was formed in an instant from the surrounding water. The construct of several feet thick and as hard as steel barely slowed the dragon as it crashed through it. Shirou increasing the pressure in his body to the max dodged to the side and for his efforts only got clipped by the tail of the dragon.

Unfortunately that small wound was enough to take a chunk of skin out of his body leaving his ribs exposed to the outside rain. Manipulating his own blood he used Magic to force it to clot. Then he pumped prana into the blood that fell to the ground imbued it with the concept of [penetrate] and sent it into the scaly body of the dragon that was coming around again to crush Shirou. The blood bullets struck and caused the scales to chip away leaving some open flesh exposed but the amount was painfully little.

The creature sprayed a jet of liquid at him and Shirou met it with his own. He instantly realised that the liquid that the dragon sprayed was in fact poison and he redoubled his efforts to block the flow. Unfortunately after ten seconds of him matching him he was forced to dive out of the way.

The poison hit the floor and started to spread around the ground and lunged for Shirou's feet. Jumping up the stairs he pulled out his Desert Eagle and shot a bullet into the open mouth of the lunging dragon. That caused it to pause momentarily and Shirou initiated one of his spells. "[Skadi's Frozen Heart]," he yelled out causing the poison to freeze. An unfortunate side effect was it also caused the rain to freeze and he found himself pelted with hail.

Shaking himself free of the hail he found himself looking at the face of a dragon that had quite enough of his shit. The dragon glared at him before it took off into the skies. It was at this point Shirou regretted that his flying research had yet to take off. While he could propel himself around using water manipulation he was so bad at it and it was so hard that it would make him a sitting duck. Shirou gazed up at the sky and then instantly raised a shield of ice. He reinforced it with half a dozen layers and then used his Magic to impose the concept of [Hardness] on it. Bracing for impact he flooded the inside with water to prevent the ice from cracking inward.

In an instant he felt like the world had collapsed. The ground beneath him had cratered and it was only his beyond human durability and the presence of the water that had prevented him from becoming a Shirou pancake. The stone that the ice dome had rested on had collapsed with a single strike from the giant reptile and it consequently left Shirou buried under his own ice dome that was pressing down on him via the weight of the dragon's claw.

Suddenly Shirou felt the dome begin to heat up. It wasn't a gradual thing. The dome went from barely above zero to above thirty in no more than ten seconds. Shirou opposed the heat by trying to apply the concept of [cold] to the dome but opposing the flames of a dragon is almost impossibly hard under the best conditions let alone when trapped beneath an ice dome and bleeding. The water climbed from thirty to forty and then surged up just as Shirou teleported himself out of the dome and across the courtyard. Instantly he started throwing up ice walls to slow down the angry lizard. Then as the dragon smashed through it he summoned an acid cloud that did absolutely nothing against the hide of the dragon but obscured its vision for a moment.

Putting some distance between the dragon and him he backed up and aimed two immensely powerful jets of water at the eyes of the dragon. As he did this he also shot a bullet towards the mouth of the dragon activating explosive runes on the bullet as he fired it.

This went incredibly poorly. Of the first two jets of water only the first one got anywhere close to its target hitting the dragon on its right eye causing blood to spurt out of the new wound. Unfortunately when the dragon was hit he raised his head and instead of the bullet striking the inside of his mouth the explosive round hit the underside of his chin.

The world seemed to quiet for a moment and for the first time in a long while Shirou got a feeling of immense danger approaching. The dragon reared back and roared to the night sky and once again Shirou got the impression of intense ripples that undermined the structure of the world. Then the roar ceased and Shirou pushed [Ryuujin's Perfect Body] to its limits in anticipation for the coming battle.

That was the only thing that saved him as an instant later he received the impact of a three toed hand on his chest breaking ribs and cracking his sternum even through his extreme defence. Sliding backward from the blow Shirou barely had any time to conjure a shield of ice to prevent the wave of poison rushing at him. Through the massive pain Shirou drew huge chunks of his prana into a wall and pushed all his pain and aches and tiredness into the back of his mind as with all his determination he pushed the concept of [unbreakable] onto it.

The unstoppable wave of poison rushed into the wall and was bounced back by the unbreakable ice. After barely a moment the dragon closed his mouth and when he opened again white hot flames came rushing out onto the wall. Shirou matched the flames massive power with ice cold determination even as he sweated from even being in the same vicinity as that vicious conflagration.

Shirou continued to hold the ice wall for thirty seconds before he was forced to relinquish it. An instant later after he teleported away from the location the wall disintegrated under the weight of the flames. At this point Shirou was exhausted. His body kept protesting that he was in pain and needed medical attention. Every fibre of his being told him to leave but he knew that if he did this dragon would rampage killing the innocent.

Unfortunately his sword was still healing Sakura and thus was not available to heal his own wounds. When he got out of this mess he resolved to learn how to heal himself and not rely on his artefacts. This was getting ridiculous Satsuki had better natural healing than him.

Sizing up the dragon he resolved to do his best to finish it in one strike. The beast looked back at him hatefully but seemed to be sizing him up the spark of reason returning to its eyes. Shirou shifted his weight and the beast followed him. That was fine, the beast wouldn't have a chance to block or dodge this anyway.

"[Amessunu-]," he started off swinging his arm forward. "[-Isstenis]," he finished teleporting onto the beasts back and striking downwards with almost all of his remaining prana. Releasing his ultimate attack at such low range caused quite the backlash and even as he aimed the ability at the beast he was pushed right off the dragon.

Landing on the hard ground he slowly rose to his feet examining the dragon. A massive laceration had formed on the beasts back ruining its perfect skin. Shirou watched the stillness of the beast and heaved a sigh of relief and exhaustion. Turning around feeling the many aches and pains that racked his body he headed into the night.

Or he would have if he didn't hear the slight noise behind him. Turning back he witnessed a sight straight out of a horror movie. The dragon slowly and unsteadily rose to its feet like a wounded yet stoic veteran. Turning to face Shirou the Magician only saw tiredness in its eyes replacing the rage it previously possessed. However it still seemed disinclined to let him go.

Watching the beast breathe in Shirou felt despair. As the beast breathed out flames Shirou felt guilt at the people he would leave behind. As the flames bore down on him Shirou pondered what more he could have done.

 **Bad End...**

 **No Not Really.**

 **Author Note I'm interested in how my attempt at writing fight scenes went. Does anybody want to see a fanfiction whereby Shirou awakes with a dual-origin of weapon/weapon and becomes a world famous weapon designer. No just me? :(**

 **Tobias97 Sorry not in this story. There are so many interesting characters in Type Moon and I can only justifiably include a fraction of them without spreading myself to thin. It sucks but that's life.**

 **Archleone Fate/Stay Night and Tsukihime contradict themselves and can't canonically exist together. I ignored this for the sake of plot. Used to have Grand Order playing off a USA server before my mother board crashed and I lost all my data. Might in future pick it up if it ever releases in RSA. The two you hate were parodies of Nasu's ever increasing attempts to bring out more versions of Arturia. The undercover Arturia was probably a representation of those who complain about it. I personally found the idea that that would have been Arturia's body if she didn't draw the sword to be hilarious. You can really tell that she drinks her milk.**

 **Please Read and Review. (And Favourite this time. I'm so close to the big 300 at time of writing.)**


	24. Getting drown to business

Satsuki and Sumire were not having a very good time. As soon as they had started to attack the tornado they ran into problems. The tornado's mobility was not accounted for in their initial estimates and every time Satsuki tried to drain the mana that surrounded and made up the tornado it moved out of the way before the effect in the space it occupied could get to severe. In addition the park resisted Satsuki's ability to drain the mana crippling the ability she most relied on. After about five minutes of this Sumire simply pulled Satsuki aside and sat down with her on a nearby park bench watching the tornado. A bottle of ale in her hand which she then proceeded to crack open and start to drink.

"What are we going to do now? Satsuki asked feeling upset about her failure to stop the tornado.

"Nothing Sumire," said lazily. "There's no point fighting a losing battle. Save your energy for whatever comes out of it."

"But we can't just do nothing, you said that thing is absorbing all the curses. What happens if it finishes absorbing them," the younger woman implored.

"When that thing finishes absorbing the curse I want you to retreat," Sumire said. "You probably haven't noticed this but this cursed ground contains a powerful anti-human inclination. You are probably the second most vulnerable to its effects after Illya."

"What," Satsuki said stuttering. "But you said I'm not human. When Shirou unvampirised me both of you said I couldn't go back to being human anymore and that I was a phantasmal beast."

"True we did say that," Sumire turned towards her student. "But you have to realise that being human is more than just a state of body but a state of mind. Despite the fact that you have a reality marble an attribute that should logically set you apart from humanity you still emulate the species too much."

She took another gulp from the bottle and continued. "Arcueid has never been human and in fact has an alien outlook that only can go as far as emulating humanity. Shirou dons and takes off his humanity like a hat depending on the situation. As for me I've been a vampire for a very long time. I can't even remember what it was like to be human."

Satsuki examined the face of her mentor. She had known the old vampire for three years now and she had a strong feeling that the last statement was a lie, but an equally strong feeling that the other statements were true. If what she said was true then she would be useless in a battle against whatever monster emerged. She clenched her hands feeling her frustration boil over. She hated being useless, that she was always the weakest on the team and she never seemed to accomplish as those much as those stronger than her.

"It doesn't have to remain that way," Sumire said giving her a knowing look. "I'm not going to give empty platitudes like you're the heart of the team or we all rely on you. You're better than that. What I'm going to do once this is over is teach you everything I know." Sumire put away her bottle and looked at her apprentice. "If you accept this offer I'm putting before you I will teach you enough that no member of the twenty-seven would call you inferior."

Satsuki gasped at the implications. "So you want to make me one of the Dead Apostle Ancestors."

Sumire nodded. "When I die, I will grant you my spot."

Turning away from the stunned Satsuki she refocused her eyes on the phenomenon. "It's stopping," she said. And indeed it was the black tornado's rotation had slowed down and contracted as the curses from the park had finished being absorbed into the blackened mass. The tornado collapsed down on itself shrinking until one solitary figure remained. Sumire sighed as she beheld who it was.

"Really, Arcueid," she said exasperatedly looking at the long haired version of one of her good acquaintances. "I don't really find her scary, do you Satsu?"

Satsuki only shook her head as she eyed up their opponent. This version of Arcueid not only had her much longer hair but she wore a black and red dress as opposed to normal Arcueid who was most often decked out in white. Besides that there were no other differences between the false True Ancestor and her friend.

Their opponent suddenly looked at them and a huge smile appeared on her face. "Hey Satsuki how are you doing," she said. "I saw you did some good work just now to try and stop me being born. Congratulations, pity it didn't work out."

"What? said Satsuki blankly trying to come to terms to what she just heard. This was what they were trying to prevent. The big villain was a polite Arcueid Brunestud.

"I see," Sumire said from next to her. "Turns out you're not as human as I thought you were Satsu. This manifestation obviously absorbed the human hating aspect of the curse. We are not its targets."

"Human hating," the Arcueid in front of them said. "I don't hate humans. I just believe they should all suffer and die." She tilted her head looking like an innocent young woman.

"Okay so Dark Arcueid, Darcueid, you know we can't let you do this," Sumire stated. As she did this she performed some pre-exercise stretches and then adopted some form of combat stance.

"Oh Sumire," Darcueid said, "I actually really liked you. I don't want you to die."

"Sorry Arcueid, that is not a scenario that I can let you act out unopposed."

The True Ancestor sighed. "So be it," she said. And then she charged.

xxx

"This thing is quite tough," Arcueid spoke idly to herself. A kick lashed out causing the gigantic evil octopus to recoil and fall over. Blades of wind formed in the air and crashed into the monster causing deep gouges in its hide. However the monster kept regenerating. Despite its huge size the monster possessed comparatively weak attack power and was very slow.

Annoyingly however the creature possessed regeneration which allowed it to take all of her punishment and come back for more. She had already chopped it into bits and dropped rocks on it but both of those it had shrugged off. Sighing Arcueid jumped back watching the monster very slowly get to its "feet". At this point she was starting to regret not going to the other two spots, they must be better than this. The upside of the whole situation was that the creature was slowly running out of mana and the night was progressing. It was already passed midnight and therefore in less than six hours the sun will rise and the Night of Wallachia will end. While this wouldn't kill the apostle ancestor it would defer the problem. While they had the backup plan based on Sumire and Shirou's conjecture she wasn't that eager to go through with it.

Suddenly one of the two sources of power changed suddenly almost taking Arcueid off guard. Using her connection to the planet she felt out the new power. Analysing the power she felt some familiarity and then everything clicked.

A burning feeling erupted in her chest. Something was trying to steal her identity, her life. She liked her life. She liked having Nine and Shirou's cooking. She liked playing games with her group of friends and talking about stuff she'd never heard of before. She liked having her special time with Shirou and she liked practicing martial arts with both of them as well.

And now some impostor wanted to take it away from her. "Not just no, but fuck no," she thought in her head. Turning to the monster she eyed it up. It was big and would be called dangerous under most circumstances but in this case it was just an obstacle.

She submersed herself in her own power resolving to crush this beast before obliterating the imposter. She jumped up to a nearby building and unloaded the unconscious Illya. Then she turned back to face the creature, not as Arcueid Brunestud but as the will of Gaia, the strongest of the True Ancestors and as the closest thing on this planet to the Crimson Moon. Activating the counter force inherent to that position she felt her strength grow to gigantic levels. Powering up she struck the creature with a single blow, a straight punch that drove the monster into the ground.

Activating her marble phantasm to the highest level she had ever used it she tapped into the magma that bubbled and boiled right below the city causing the ground to erupt in a spurt of lava that engulfed and burnt the creature causing it to shriek in pain. With a wave of her hand the lava wrapped around the creature completely covering it. Another gesture and the area in which the creature was situated dropped to under minus eighty degrees centigrade. In less than ten seconds the creature was a mere statue. Arcueid nodded grimly to herself and went to confront the imposter

xxx

The dragon snorted in satisfaction looking at the melted crater in front of him. His back was in agony and the cool night air scraped against his exposed spine like a thousand needles. He regretted attacking that man. He did not actually want to fight him as the man had done nothing to harm him personally and was very dangerous as indicated by the fact that during the fight he had come perilously close to dying. But unfortunately he couldn't help it. His very genes demanded that ones such as he must die and regrettably he wasn't strong enough to disobey.

A noise to the side made him pause. "No," he the dragon thought. "No, surely not. It can't be."

Turning his head he came across the image of the red haired man that so dodged his best attempts to kill him looking better than ever. He sat astride a black unicorn and the places that his wounds were glinted silver.

xxx

"Wow that was close Nine, another few seconds and I would have been ash," Shirou smiled down at the unicorn. "And I see you've brought my sword back to me. Well done. In future I'm going to have to include some ability that allows me to summon it back. But as for now."

Shirou straightened up. His overtaxed circuits spun again gathering more prana as he addressed the dragon. "Do you still want to continue," he said with steely eyes. "You can still retreat."

The dragon gazed at Shirou and then slowly nodded his head. This time however there was no certainty in the action and Shirou picked up on the reluctance. He sighed and then grasped his newly returned sword and charged. The dragon could not fly due to the damage that was done to his back so he remained earthbound. However that problem did not restrict his ability to breathe fire nor did it restrict the sheer mass of his blows and toughness of his hide. Nine darted around the fire as he charged towards him adjusting his speed and bearing to weave between the tongues of flame.

The unicorn was among other things inherited from Nrvnqsr and it was bloody fast. It stood over twenty hands tall and yet could turn on a dime. As they approached the crippled dragon a three fingered hand came whipping towards the duo at speed comparable to lightning. Nine not only dodged the claws but turned his entire body ninety degrees allowing Shirou to run his sword through arm of the massive beast. The dragons armour was unbelievably tough but with the momentum of the unicorn as well as Shirou's strong arms and the incredibly deadly piercing power of Nolava Shirou managed to penetrate the scales of the dragon.

As soon as the sword pierced its target the secondary effect of the blade activated and small bits of metal broke off the edges of the blade and were left in the wound. As soon as the blade left the arm of the dragon the bits of metal exploded in growth. This rapid expansion of metal inside the dragon caused it to roar in pain as its right arm was rendered useless.

Its right side falling to the ground the dragon propped itself up on its left arm and spat out a wave of poison at the duo. The wave rose up to block them as they approached their prey. Running straight at the poison Nine leapt up at the dragon Shirou standing on his back. At the apex of the jump Shirou with all his power leapt up and atop the dragon pushing Nine down into the poison below.

Landing on the dragons head Shirou immediately dodged a claw that was aimed to crush him into pulp. Grabbing onto the dragons scale as he fell he landed inches from the open mouth of the dragon. Its jaws snapped at him and he had to struggle to keep those enamel swords from slicing him in two. With his free hand he stabbed the gums of the dragon.

At this new pain the dragon went berserk thrashing his head trying to dislodge this unwanted intrusion. With tremendous force Shirou was flung upwards and into the sky. The pressure was so great that he almost passed out but with sheer force of will he remained consciousness.

Looking downwards he saw the open mouth of the dragon flames starting to gather. Taking stock he realized he was low on prana, his muscles were tired, Nine was still taking a poison bath and his blade was still stuck in the dragons gums.

All that he had on his person was his Magic and his wits while the dragon appeared to have a volcano down his throat. That was the problem with dragon lungs Shirou realized; they were entire worlds that simply existed to produce prana. It was one of those things that made them such feared examples of Phantasmal beasts.

Shirou nearly smacked himself the answer was so obvious. Letting out almost all the water in his body he quickly applied the concept of [freeze] to it and in under a second he was above a titanic iceberg. Cheating further he once again called on his magic and applied the concept of [heavy]. Both concepts were not properly applied and would likely not stick around too long as the iceberg melted and changed but it was good for his purpose.

The dragon's fire had barely begun when the impact of a fifty thousand ton iceberg hit it in the face. As tough as the phantasmal beast could be it was not prepared for that and the resulting collision caused its head to be crushed beneath the mass.

Shirou was falling down into the poison when he felt strong arms envelop him. Looking up he came across the concerned eyes of Nine. His butler landed and carried him through the poison on the ground.

"Wow Nine," Shirou said desperately trying to recover some control of the situation. "If I was that way inclined I might have actually fallen for you right there."

"If my Master wishes I can change my gender to match his perversions," Nine said as he smiled in good humour.

"Gods no," Shirou shuddered. "We don't need any more oestrogen in the house. But I'm sure you have the girls falling over you Nine."

"I'm afraid Master that I'm married to my job," Nine replied back as he helped his Master to his feet.

"What about that cute maid golem," Shirou replied winking.

"As cute as she was I feel that she would be more your type than mine Master," Nine smirked. "You always seem to like those that are a few screws short."

Shirou smiled and then he sighed, "As interesting as this is we should really get to the others."

"Are you sure Maste," Nine said concerned. "You're really not in the best condition. You have just fought a dragon, the strongest of all phantasmal beasts; even if the dragon was not a real one that is still no small feat."

"Sorry for worrying you Nine," Shirou said sheepishly. "But I have a feeling I need to go." He took one step forward and then stumbled. "Can you call a taxi or something Nine. I really don't feel like walking all the way."

"I'm afraid no taxis will be available on a night like tonight Master," Nine smiled. "If you're going to insist on going let me provide you with alternate transport."

At those words Nine started to shift until a new form appeared. Shirou whistled as he beheld it.

"Nine, not going to lie that looks pretty cool, let's go." He gave the iceberg one last look. "I don't think I'm going to be able to retrieve my sword right now."

xxx

The fight between Darcueid and Sumire was going far more evenly than Satsuki initially thought. Sumire was weakened on land and was going up against one of the most physically powerful beings in the world backed up with the various curses in the park.

However there were a few things that gave Sumire an advantage over her opponent. Firstly the curses were mainly geared towards humans and so most of them slid off her and those that didn't she almost immediately diffused.

Secondly she had prepared by charging up her marble phantasm beforehand, synchronizing with the world and was now currently performing some truly impressive feats despite the lack of ocean. Satsuki had never thought about half of those uses and she was sure that Arcueid hadn't either. So far Darcueid had been zapped by electricity, poisoned, spontaneously combusted, crushed by gravity and been plunged into unforgiving fog.

Third was that the creature did not fight like Arcueid. To be more specific, she did not fight like the modern Arcueid. Arcueid had been practicing with a simplified martial art that worked for her and had practiced until she became pretty good. This Arcueid stuck to wild attacks that while unpredictable, vicious and strong were technique wise no match for Sumire's Krav Maga. Despite being stronger and faster than her opponent she was getting slightly dominated.

Suddenly the new Arcueid seemed to have enough of the fight and started spamming wind attacks by using her Marble Phantasm. Sumire was getting pushed back and started fighting on the defensive trying to wear out the seemingly inexhaustible reserves of energy.

This tactic didn't work because the battle was suddenly joined by the real Arcueid who appeared from behind Sumire and ran forward landing a powerful jab in the other Arcueid's face. This jab was followed by a one two combo against the ribs and then an uppercut causing the other Arcueid to stumble backwards.

This didn't slow real Arcueid as she simply strode forward dodging the wild swipes of her evil counterpart with some fancy footwork. Bobbing left and right she landed hit after hit on the doppelganger. Not a single punch was held back and not a single blow was taken by her and after about half-a-minute of this Darcueid was on the ropes.

"Try to steal my life will you," the Arcueid suddenly shouted out. "They're my friends, my food, my fun, my family. Find your own." With that she suddenly started rocketing out blows at ever increasing pace until the copycat scum was reduced to a pile of flesh on the floor. Only then did Arcueid relent stepping back and breathing with a certain heaviness neither of the onlookers had ever seen before.

She then raised her hands and far above in the night sky a red moon appeared. Under the light of the moon the beaten body disappeared and was replaced by that of a blonde aristocratic looking man.

"Zepia Eltman Oberon," the unamused True Ancestor stated. "As the man started to stand up she drove her fist through his skull. "She then unleashed her Marble Phantasm tearing the entire upper portion of his body to ribbons.

Stepping away from the corpse she started to walk over to Satsuki and Sumire her grim look disappearing and her smile widening as she beheld two of her friends. The two also showed relieved smiles as they looked at her. But then Sumire's smile faded. A chill went up Arcueid's spine as she turned to face her defeated opponent. The corpse had started bubbling and Arcueid started getting a very bad feeling.

"It's cursed," she heard Satsuki yell out from behind her. At this knowledge she started forcefully categorizing what she could do to stop it and coming up blank. She had no ability to stop curses. She could only watch helplessly as the bubbling came to a stop and the curse exploded into being a muddy sick black thing.

The curse washed towards her and she resolved to stop it by any means necessary when suddenly Shirou was in front of her. At the same time she vaguely recognized Nine in the form of a Pegasus land next to her but she was too bust focusing on her best friend who was in front of the wave of curses.

Shirou stuck out of his hand and the black wave impacted his body. After a moment he was buried in the black goo. Arcueid rushed in to save him and she dived into the mud swimming through it to get him. She reached him in a moment and pulled him out but even as she did that the mud was becoming less viscous and by the time he was out the mud had been reduced to just a few small puddles.

"Shirou, Shirou can you hear me," Arcueid said shaking him slightly. He really did not look good. Blood was dripping from his ears and his eyes were red and veiny. In addition his breathing was shallow and his skin was dry.

His eyes opened, "Arcueid," he said his voice cracked and hoarse.

"Yes Shirou, what is it," Arcueid said anxiously looking at him.

Shirou raised his hand and rapped the vampire on the forehead. "Why is there a fucking volcano in my city?" he said his voice quiet. "And why the fuck was Illya on the roof?"

"He he," Arcueid said. "Well that's a funny story."

Shirou sighed, "Nevermind I'm tapped out. I don't think I can even stand up anymore after I had to apparently purify the whole park while it attacked me."

Shirou eyes flickered and he yawned. When he next spoke his voice was full of fatigue. "Arcueid fix the volcano, take Satsuki with you. Sumire can you please remove an iceberg by the temple and keep the Tiger off of me tomorrow. Nine take me home. Somebody get Illya off…" his voice trailed off and he fell asleep.

"Well I'll see you tomorrow," Nine said picking up Shirou and heading into the darkness.

"Let's go fix up the volcano and get Illya back," Arcueid grabbed Satsuki and they both headed off in that direction.

Sumire smiled and took another drink of her alcohol. She headed off towards the temple but before she left she took one look at the fading red moon etching the spectacular sight into her memory.

xxx

Scattered throughout Fuyuki hundreds of runic circles captured the light of the Crimson Moon. These runic circles were themselves siphoned off of by a series of devices. Each device had such millimetre precision that it could have only been created with the latest of technology and yet each device simultaneously were so steeped in magic that they could have been mistaken for an artefact from the Age of the Gods. The devices themselves burned out in a brief display of power imprinting their dying magecraft on a set of runes drawn in blood below. Each of the fifty circles activated only briefly creating an effect that was imprinted on the surrounding mana and then went still.

The fiftieth of the circles that was located on the roof of a cavern beneath Mount Enzo didn't disappear but instead remained active. The circle was hidden incredibly well to such an extent it would not be possible for anybody to actually discover it without prior knowledge.

Because of this nobody would ever notice the slowly pulsing circle. Nobody would ever notice that among the ever-changing numbers and figures that one figure remained constant.

Nobody would ever notice the countdown marking one year from now.

 **Author Note: Not one hundred percent happy about this chapter. This is basically the end of the arc. There will be a more relaxed chapter next dealing with the conclusion. Can anybody who has some time on their hands do me a favour and just drop a short review about their favourite and/or least favourite character and maybe why they like/hate them.**

 **Omegazero2718 Okay you got me. Neither I nor google translate have any idea what the fuck you said. I assume this is something memetic but I'm genuinely not sure. Can you please indulge my curiosity.**

 **The Rupture He's trying but he's been taking damage and constantly using it. In this chapter with a bit of patching up he's able to use it again.**

 **2lzy2login I always feel that fate/stay has such great potential for au fics. However this potential is very rarely exploited. My next fanfiction won't be a fate fic as I don't want to just find a niche and sit in it.**


	25. Okay I'm officially sick of water puns

Sakura Matou approached consciousness as routinely as a clock approaches the hour. In fact it wasn't until she had gotten up and started heading towards her wardrobe to change that she realised that her wardrobe wasn't there; and she wasn't in her pyjama's and that this wasn't her room. She started racking her brain trying to find out how she got here when she noticed something unusual.

The worms in her body that had been her constant companions for her entire life were silent. They no longer writhed about causing her pain nor lust and she felt calm and in control over herself for the first time in her life. Even as she marvelled at their lack she felt sudden nervousness wash over her as she waited for the other shoe to drop.

"Awake I see," the voice came from her peripherals and caused her to jump and spin in place.

Turning she saw the image of a handsome man with both black hair and black irises. He had the features of a westerner and seemed to be only one or two years older than herself. He was dressed in an expensive looking suit and had a gentle smile upon his features.

"No need to panic," the man waved his hand at her in a disarming manner. "You're safe here, nobody in this house wishes you any harm." At seeing Sakura's still nervous look he continued. "If we were going to harm you then why would we treat you and bring you back into our house to rest." The man suddenly looked towards a watch on his wrist. "It's ten 'o clock and you have been asleep for the past fifteen hours, you must be hungry, there is food waiting for you downstairs. Just turn left and head forwards and down the stairs and follow your nose. There are clothes waiting for you on the desk behind you. If you have any further problems then just yell and I will appear."

With that the man turned on his heel and headed out of the room leaving behind an overwhelmed Sakura. Taking a few deep breaths to steady herself she decided to comply for now. She changed into the simple dress that she noticed with some unease fitted perfectly on her body. She broke into a sweat at the thought that somebody had seen her defiled body. Taking deep breaths she calmed herself. They might not know she thought, it would take a magus for them to identify the worms and there was no evidence that the person in front of her was anybody but a person who had found her collapsed and taken her in out of compassion.

Stepping out of the room clad in the given vestments she followed the man's instructions. Almost immediately upon heading downstairs she began to smell the breakfast that was promised to her. The smell was mouth-watering and Sakura's stomach grumbled as she quickened her pace. Stepping into the kitchen she was confronted by the sight of two people already in, one she recognized and one she did not.

The person she recognized was the man who had appeared when she woke up. He now wore an apron and a chef's hat and was frying bacon in a pan over the stove. The one she didn't recognize was a woman just a bit older than her age with brown hair and with bloodshot eyes that hovered over a cup of coffee like it was her lifeline occasionally taking sips from the strong substance like she was a drowning woman and the drink was her oxygen.

She hovered in the doorway not wanting to disturb the two when the woman at the table noticed her. "Nine, she's come down. You can dish up for her now."

"I am aware of that Lady Yumizuka," the man who Sakura now identified as Nine stated. "I need not remind you that my senses are sharper than yours, especially in your sleep-addled state. Now that I mention it I would like to reiterate my beliefs that you would better assist my master by going to sleep."

"Fine," the woman who was apparently called Yumizuka said and got up. Smiling at the purple headed visitor to the house despite the tired look in her eyes she spoke. "Welcome to this residence. I'm afraid the owner is currently asleep and being cuddled to death." Behind the girl Nine let out a snort of laughter as the image of a stationary Shirou being cuddled up to by a similarily unconscious Arcueid flitted through his mind. He had refrained from taking pictures because he had a feeling it would annoy his master but it was a mental image that he would carry for a while.

"If you have any problems ask Nine. He's both a butler and one of the few who are still awake and not currently working," the brown haired girl continued, Nine nodding in assent behind her. "I'm taking the far room on the ground floor Nine," she called out to the butler and he nodded his assent.

Sitting down at the table she started to eat the traditional western breakfast that was laid before her Sakura started to speak to the butler. "Excuse me , what exactly happened last night,"

The butler sighed making Sakura feel slightly bad, "Firstly Lady Matou," he said. "Call me Nine please, not . Nine was the designation I received when I was created to be a familiar."

Sakura reeled at this knowledge. Familiar implied that this was a magus family and then they would be aware of her abuse, but Nine looked like no familiar she had ever seen. Familiars to her knowledge were normal animals that were infused with spirits and donated magical circuits. However Nine showed more intelligence than a familiar was typically supposed to and was in the shape of a human.

Then the shape of Nine flickered revealing teeth and eyes and blackness before he was back to the form of the butler that was currently dishing food onto the plate. Looking at her the human looking familiar smiled at her shocked face. "I actually never said I was a familiar Lady Matou, only that I was created to be one. You could say that my master succeeded beyond what he thought possible or tremendously failed depending on your perspective." The being clapped his hands. "Now eat up you have a long and hard day ahead of you and it probably shouldn't be faced on an empty stomach.

With no more encouragement needed Sakura ate from her plate while still keeping an eye on Nine who busied around cleaning up the kitchen.

Suddenly while she was eating she heard the sounds of shuffling footsteps. "Ahh Master Inke you're up," Nine said as he laid another two plates of food. "Thank you for bringing him here Lady Arcueid."

Sakura turned around and saw two people entering the doorway. One was familiar and the other unfamiliar. The male was leaning on the female's shoulder and with a start she realised that the man was her fellow student Shirou Inke. "No problem Nine," the blond woman in the white shirt and purple skirt said. "Just sit down Shirou I'll help you out today."

Shirou really did not look good. Sakura realised with a blush that he was only wearing pants but his torso was covered with bandages. His usually sharp eyes had clouded over and hosted a look of disorientation. His eyes sharpened a bit when he saw Sakura but that ended quickly as he slowly shuffled over to the table and plopped down into the chair wincing as he sat down.

"Nine," he said his voice barely more than a whisper. "Was Nolava retrieved?"

"Unfortunately it was broken in the impact master," the butler spoke up. "Crushed beyond any hope of repair, I would advise you to try again."

Shirou acknowledged this with a nod and then winced and clutched his head. Turning towards Sakura he addressed her for the first time since he entered the room. "I apologize but I'm not feeling very well at the moment," he said his voice dry and cracked. "I'm sure you have many questions but the facts boil down to this. Last night you were incapacitated due to an event that happened in the city. During the event I learned both of the horrors that Zouken inflicted on you and the future problems he presented. I immediately went over to the mansion and confronted him. During the confrontation he attacked me and I killed him. Your brother Shinji died in the crossfire, devoured by stray worms. Currently you are the head of the Matou family and a will has been found leaving the mansion and the rest of the Matou fortune to you."

He stopped after that series of worldshaking revelations and addressed his servant. "Nine can you start pouring me water. I've lost a simply absurd amount of liquids and I need to replenish."

At this point Sakura was panicking. In her world Zouken was a being that couldn't be defied or the person would suffer. For years she had suffered despair due to her situation and she had given up on ever finding a way out of her situation and satisfied herself with a life of anguish and did her best to minimize that suffering by never defying her grandfather. The thought of one of her classmates just killing the source of her problems was…

"You're lying!" she suddenly stood up slamming her hands against the table. "Grandfather would never die that easily. I need to go back before he takes his anger out on you also." She made to leave but was stopped by the girl named Arcueid who gripped on her shoulder with surprising strength leaving her stuck.

"Oww," Shirou said rubbing his head. "Please keep it down," he said his voice harsher but soft as ever. "I have a bitch of a migraine and yelling like that isn't helping."

"Sorry," Sakura replied apologetically keeping her voice deliberately low.

"Here," said Shirou handing her a book. To Sakura's inspection she realized it was a book on the Matou magecraft. Moreover she realized that it wasn't a book that was found in the Matou library or any other place she could have seen it. This meant that it could have only been gotten from Zouken's workshop. No living Magus would ever allow someone into their workshop unless it was an apprentice. The odds were starting to look better that he was dead and that Shirou had actually killed him.

"But how," she said her voice full of incredulity. "Zouken was a powerful Magus and he was inside his house. How could you win?"

"Something, Sakura," Shirou replied, "You might learn later in your life is that there is always a bigger fish."

"Master Inke," Nine piped up from beside him. "Didn't we have a talk about quoting movies? You're not even quoting a very good one."

"Shut up Nine," Shirou snapped and then winced due to his constant headache. "That was a great quote and the Phantom Menace was not that bad a movie," he continued softly.

Nine merely rolled his eyes as Shirou resumed his eating ignoring the bubbling thoughts of Sakura.

xxx

Sakura turned the key that was presented to her by Nine in the lock and entered the house in which she had suffered so many torments. Shirou had mentioned that there was a will that stated everything was left to her but he had also winked when he said it as if he was letting her in on a secret. The thought that they may have forged a will in her name left a slightly sour taste in her mouth that she didn't know what to feel about. This compounded with the fact that both of them had died due to her, although Shirou was quick to ensure that he would have gotten around to killing Zouken eventually.

That was another thing that had thrown her. Shirou, from the things he had said as well as what had been implied by the others around him, was incredibly powerful but before today she didn't have a clue that he was anything more than the eccentric, rebellious cheerful guy. He had explained that the reason he had kept it secret was so that he could both avoid the Magus association and so that he could annoy Rin. While she didn't know what she felt about him annoying her sister she decided not to do anything that would antagonize the powerful upperclassmen who had done so much for her.

Stepping into the atrium she was overcome by a sense of peace. Even without venturing further into the house she finally realized that Zouken was gone forever. The walls chittered less, the house was less full with dread and the bugs inside her body did still not alert her that she had his attention. She fell down to her knees and burst into tears. Whether it was from sadness that her brother who she had once loved was dead, the fact that the looming spectre of Zouken was gone or the fact that she had spent so much of her life in pain and only now could she mourn for it she could not tell.

Suddenly a handkerchief appeared in front of her and she took it almost unconsciously and had already blown her nose before she looked up at the two figures that stood in front of her. Neither of them was familiar. The woman on the right had blonde hair and blue eyes as well as a voluptuous figure that was very obvious from the orange bikini that she wore she stood at about six feet.

The man next to her also stood at six feet and had blonde hair but that was where the resemblance ended. He had red eyes and was dressed in a black leather jacket and pants. In addition his very presence called for Sakura to submit and she felt an almost instinctive desire to kneel before him and prostrate herself.

Suddenly the blonde lady lashed out in a blow towards the man at such a speed that Sakura could only perceive the afterimage. The man merely stepped back avoiding the blow without even looking towards the woman.

"Turn down the mind-affecting mojo," she said. "She's already not having the best day. Please try not to make it worse."

"It's not an ability that I can just turn on and off," the man said looking at his companion lazily. "It's just people when confronted by my majesty naturally feel inferior. What do you want me to do put a bag over my head."

Looking at his companions assenting face the man sighed to himself. "Oh by all the gods," he swore. He reached into space and pulled out a brown hooded coat made of fine cloth that he immediately put on. Suddenly the oppressive need to bow and scrape before the man was gone.

"I'll put this on for now," the man said his voice lacking the power of his previous appearance and his features concealed by the hood. "But this will not become a recurring theme. I have no wish to overuse my treasure."

"Anyway," the woman said as she turned towards Sakura again. "I'm Sumire and this is Gilgamesh. We just came to fix up the house and stage the accident in which Zouken and Shinji were killed. So," she said. "Do you want to be visiting a friend while this occurred or do you want to have left to go to the shops?"

"What," said Sakura bewildered by the line of questioning that had had arisen. "Shops," she said after a bit of thinking. "I don't have enough friends."

Ignoring Sumire's pitying look she continued, "And what is this about staging an accident."

"Obviously we have to come up with a cover story as to how they died," the cloaked Gilgamesh said as if talking to somebody slow. "If we don't provide a cover story to a battle between supernatural beings Alaya will, and I assure you she's nowhere near as precise as we are. Don't worry about it," he stated dismissively towards her. "There is no need for you to know the cover story. We will sort it out. Just go and celebrate your freedom no matter how poorly you may go about it."

Suddenly Sakura found herself grow furious at the cloaked man. "What would you know," she said. "Do you think it's that easy to move on? To just celebrate the fact that I'm alone? That they're gone and now I'm fine as if it didn't happen?"

"You're scared," the man said bluntly. "You had lost hope for so long you became nothing but a corpse. Now when you're taking your first breath you are immediately terrified of it being your last. Hope is one of the scariest things in the world and despair is the most comforting. You manage to rise from the abyss and all you can think of is how scared you are of falling back in."

Sakura was staring wide-eyed at the man each of his words hitting her like a sledgehammer. For the first time since she was awake she acknowledged the kernel of hope that sat surrounded by the mire of fear.

"You forget two things," Gilgamesh continued. "One you're not alone. Shirou saved you. That means he has at least a nominal interest in your wellbeing. Many of his friends would also be glad to help you out. Plus you're tripping Sumire's maternal instincts pretty hard right now. If you're not careful you will find yourself in a swimsuit before too long."

"Second," he said ignoring Sumire's pout. "You have reached rock bottom. Take it from somebody who knows that it is only those who have reached that pit of despair who understand the true meaning of joy. Every memory that you make from now on exists separately from the memories you've had up until now. It is the bad times we endure so that we may appreciate when the good times appear and the good times we cherish so that they may carry us through the bad times." He reached out his arms and after a moment's hesitation Sakura took it and hugged the golden haired man tightly. "Go out and experience the world young woman. It is only by both experiencing pleasure and loss that you can live as a human. Be sure that when you do die you can look back at your life and smile."

With that speech by Gilgamesh done both of them spoke for a bit longer before left the house. As soon as they left the house Sumire turned towards her companion. "What was that?" she said. "You've never struck me as the kind of person to do that before."

Gilgamesh removed his cloak and smile ruefully. "I owed Shirou a favour, don't ask for what. He asked me to help Sakura and I agreed."

"So…," Sumire said awkwardly. "How much of that do you actually believe?"

"Every word," Gilgamesh said. "Just as you do?"

"What do you mean," Sumire said aggressively affixing Gilgamesh with a glare.

"Please," the golden king said rolling his eyes. "That won't work on me. Besides a person who has reached the abyss of despair will always recognize another."

"Your story sounds interesting," Sumire said changing the subject.

"Maybe I will tell you about it someday," Gilgamesh said politely as the two of them headed back to Shirou's house.

 **Author Note Next is the start of the grail war. Wow it felt like it took a long time to get there. Now is the last time for people to send servant recommendations that I will most probably ignore:). In all honesty I have selected most of them and I will probably take a week off just to plan the structure of the following chapters.**

 **AnimeA55Kicker Soon but not at the moment**

 **Hyperomegasonic26 Nope Zepia's not waking up.**

 **Guest And I might write one after I've written a few fics for other series. Of course it would involve time-travel aliens and alternated realities if I was doing it.**

 **Archleone Any plans for Satsuki and Rin will not currently be spoiled. While I don't like to self promote if you want to read a harem story my one shot has partially evolved into a full on story in which one half of the main character desires a harem. It's a Rosario to Vampire story is not what you're thinking of and I might publish the first chapter while I'm in the middle of planning out how the grail war will work.**


	26. The Sun rises on the Grail War

Rin Tohsaka sat in the train and stared out of the window watching the countryside go by. On her side hung a rucksack that contained, amongst other things, a piece of wood wrapped in cloth. Despite the age of the piece it wasn't that hard to obtain, nor that expensive. It hardly required any of her wealth or her connections to obtain, yet it was invaluable if she was to win the Holy Grail War.

She had even bit back her pride and went to ask the only known survivor of the fourth war for any workable tactics. Lord El-Melloi had only looked at her before he had told her to give up. He had then claimed that no amount of genius would ever prepare somebody to fight in the war and he had no further time for a dead student. She had left his room wishing that the dismissal had made her furious. Instead it had resurfaced a deep fear that had been festering in her heart for a few years.

When two expert executors arrived at her house informing her that the Einzberns were wiped out and the killer was traced here she was shocked. She took a day off school just sitting behind her bounded field waiting for news of the killer Kiritsugu Emiya's death. Well she received news a day later. That priest later confirmed that Kiritsugu Emiya was killed by a member of the church; however the two executors that were sent to Fuyuki had disappeared without a trace. After those events she found it almost impossible to sleep for weeks after that. The thought that it could have been her to simply disappear like that kept flashing through her head.

Eventually she had taken that dread and used it as fuel to drive her to master her magecraft. She had excelled and after many more sleepless nights she had been declared adequate at magecraft and graduated as a mature magus. From then she had immediately turned her eyes towards the clocktower and after a few false starts she had been granted an apprenticeship by the Wizard Marshall Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg himself. It had been the best moment of her life so far. All of her hard work had been acknowledged and she had been given an opportunity to not only prove her ability as a magus but also advance her family lineage.

This had disappeared shortly when the rumours of previous apprentices of Zelretch reached her ears. Stories of young magi being driven to insanity during his teachings were rife and those combined with the memories of her mother's blank eyed stare as she spoke to an absent Sakura and her dead husband almost made her turn down the honour. However in the end she was very glad she didn't.

Zelretch was not the most professional of teachers. He consistently displayed a lack of concern for any mishaps that Rin had while practicing her magecraft, which only in the most private recesses of her mind would she admit that there were more than a few. He also had the tendency of giving Rin the most impossible tasks to do in order to practice her magecraft like store fifty units of prana in a thirty capped gem. Rin still felt phantom pains in her left arm when she thought about it.

Still he was an excellent mentor, consistently showing her new tricks and new ways to refine her magecraft. He also gave her perspective. Despite all her genius and lineage he flat out stated that she was far worse at magecraft than he was at her age. He also stated that while she could qualify for the rank of Pride in the tower if she was tested, that there were also Magi her age who could qualify for Grand.

Rin shuddered at the thought. People who achieved the rank of Grand were incredibly powerful like the queen of clocktower. To think that people her age were on that level humbled her slightly and she found herself slightly dejected for a bit before she shrugged it off and got back to practicing her jewelcraft.

The train lurched to a stop and Rin left the vehicle and the station automatically, her legs carrying her on the way to her house without the input of her higher brain functions. She didn't actually want to take part in this war. The last time the war took place she lost her mother, her father and her sister as well as almost died herself. Despite the massive pride that she had in her legacy as a Tohsaka the Grail War had over time become something she actively despised.

This lead to the current direction of her thoughts. She would win the Grail War, obtain the grail and smash it until it was completely destroyed. She had even considered doing it before the war would take place and ending it prematurely. Unfortunately the Tohsaka's had very little information on the mechanics of the grail compared to the Einzbern's or even the Matou.

Her thoughts went in a very painful direction. Sakura, her beloved former sister, was who she would have to talk with to get any assistance in that objective. However she had no idea how to approach her about this. Last year when Sakura became the head of the Matou family on "that day" she had hoped that they could reconcile without pressure from those from either of their families keeping them apart.

But unfortunately it wasn't to be. Any overtures that were made to Sakura by Rin were either ignored or rebuffed. She couldn't even go through any of her friends to talk to as Sakura kept a polite distance from everybody the only exception being Shirou Inke.

Rin tried to avoid talking to that madman as much as possible. His annoying magic tricks aside he constantly gave the expression that life was a game to him, one that he happened to play with more knowledge than others. This was not helped by the fact that his school results were genuinely great. Rin just couldn't deal with him for any long periods of time.

Taking her mind off unpleasant things she continued her walk to the Tohsaka residene that served as her home. After a short incantation and the use of the key to her house she was inside and away from the prying eyes of the general public. Relaxing slightly she sat down and went about preparing lunch as one does before partaking in a massive ritual and winning the war.

Finishing her lunch she went about preparing the various components of the ritual. A summoning circle was quickly and efficiently drawn up. The box that she had gotten from her father was once again excavated, messing up all the clocks in her house once again to her annoyance, and the jewel was taken while the broken snakeskin was ignored. While she suspected that it was a catalyst of some sort, she decided that she did not want to use it due to her lack of knowledge about it as well as the creeping thought that the servant who may have last been summoned by it had failed her father and caused his death.

Checking her pendant she noticed that it still had that same unbelievable amount of magical energy stored within. To be more specific it contained ten years' worth of magical energy. The pendant could be used as a trump card during the war to replenish her servant. She was not foolish enough to use it on a servant directly as that would be a slight annoyance to the transcendent beings.

Sighing she checked her watch. It had cost a lot to purchase but Zelretch had basically told her that he would personally never allow her to do a ritual unless she purchased a watch that remained accurate without breaking down. The time per her watch said 2:57:37. Resigning herself to a long wait she picked up the catalyst and headed down to the basement to place it beside the circle so she would have it on hand when the time came. Walking down the steps she once again pondered whether Sakura would be taking place in the ritual.

She didn't want to… No she refused to have to kill her sister. She would target her servant if necessary but she wouldn't fight Sakura. "Maybe I should ask her for an all…" was the thought that went through her head when, not paying attention she tripped on the last stair.

The wooden piece went flying out of her hand and towards the circle. Panicking she reinforced herself using her magic crest and dove after it moving faster than any human could for just a few moments. Her hand managed to grasp it just as it entered the magic circle.

Suddenly Rin felt her prana drain. Her eyes widened in disbelief as she suddenly realized she was channelling prana into a magic circle. A flash of light and a sudden surge of prana right in front of her caused her to jump back and cover her eyes.

The being that emerged from the light did not disappoint the term of heroic spirit in anyway. He stood six foot with blond hair and soft blue eyes and his very presence reassured Rin and she felt some of her worries melt away. He wore white plate mail that shone radiantly. Noticing Rin he smiled at her and unconsciously a blush almost found its way to her face.

"Greetings Master," the man said going down on one knee and covering his heart with his fist. "Servant Saber at your command."

"I accept your service Saber," Rin said regaining control of herself. "May I ask your name?"

"I am Gawain," the kneeling servant said simply still showing no self-consciousness at his position.

"Please rise," Rin said internally happy. While Gawain wasn't King Arthur or Lancelot he was still a well-known and famous knight and more importantly a member of the Saber class. Focusing on the knight she resolved to clear any communications errors between them before the start of the war. "Do you understand the nature of the Holy Grail War?" she inquired of him.

"I do," he replied back with certainty in his voice. "Seven masters, seven servants and the winners have their wish granted." Suddenly Gawain's constant smile flickered for a minute. "Master," he said his voice flat. "Am I correct in believing that the Grail War takes place completely during the night?"

"That's correct," Rin said wondering where this is going.

"Master my title is Knight of the Sun and I'm far stronger during the middle of the day. Did you not know this when you summoned me," Gawain inquired.

Rin's face fell as she felt her hopes of winning the Grail War crack to pieces and disappear into the wind. Falling to her knees the only thought that went through her head was, "I screwed up."

xxx

Rin and her servant stood on top of the building for the purpose of familiarising Gawain with the layout of Fuyuki. The night had been empty so far and they had not run into anymore servants and masters. However Rin couldn't breathe easy. About an hour into their travels Gawain had stated that he felt eyes on him. Rin had wanted to dismiss it but Gawain had assured him that while he could not pinpoint the location there was definitely something sizing him up.

From that point on Gawain had been strictly immaterial in the hopes of drawing out their stalker and to prevent them from getting any more information. Unfortunately while Gawain assured them they were still being followed the being had yet to make a move. Leaving the tops of the building Rin had then led her servant to the park. Ever since "that day" the park had been remarkably peaceful. The curse that had plagued the land had dissipated and now it was a peaceful place that many families and couples loved to attend.

Walking through the park both her and Gawain stopped to admire the beauty. Rin supposed that the park at least was one good thing that happened on "that day". Suddenly Gawain, still immaterial, whispered from beside her, "Master, we're being followed," he said.

"Is it the person who had been stalking us," Rin replied back anxious at the possibility that they may have to deal with two opponents.

"I can't tell," Gawain replied. "Nevertheless be on your guard for others."

The two of them waited in silence for a brief time in the darkness of the park with nobody showing up. A chill wind blew through Fuyuki and the night was eerie in its stillness. Rin was about to berate her servant for needlessly worrying her when the sound of footsteps disturbed the night. Both Master and Servant were on guard instantly focused towards the source of the disturbance. The footsteps continued on slow and unhurried and it was only after thirty seconds that the man managed to enter their sight.

Rin's eyes widened as he took him in and she almost mistook him for a servant if it wasn't for the fact she could see the command seals tattooed on his face. One on each cheek and a third that was found on his chin. He stood tall towering over every human Rin had ever met, easily two metres at the least. He wore a figure hugging black top and a pair of black jeans that caused him to stick out amongst the natural colours of the park. His eyes were covered by a pair of sunglasses and he smoked a cigarette as he walked. Lastly he was tanned and had a bristly moustache.

Coming to a standstill he dropped his cigarette on the ground stomping down on it to extinguish the embers. "Saber I presume," he said and his presence and tone of voice made the simple statement sound forceful. Exhaling the last of the smoke he nodded towards the space on his left and another man appeared. "Lancer attack them," he commanded standing there with his arms crossed.

Lancer was tall standing over six feet which made him look short compared to the giant standing next to him. He had blond hair and sharp eyes that combined with his angular face gave him the appearance of a hunting eagle. He was wearing what looked to be like silver metal pauldrons on his shoulders. No armour covered the upper parts of his legs but he wore silver knee high boots composed of metal.

All of this was noticed in under a second by Rin before the servant literally disappeared in front of her eyes and appeared clashing against the sword of Saber who was suddenly in front of her. The swords clashed and Saber was able to repel the spear of Lancer, a wicked looking thing. However lancer disengaged and thrust again and again. With every thrust he slowly lost ground to the spear of Lancer. Seeing the continued danger Rin calmed herself and when the lancer extended and Saber locked his blades she took the opportunity and skirted around the two duelling warriors heading for the Master of Lancer. Gathering prana from her jewels she prepared to release it in a single attack that would instantly kill Lancer's Master before he had any chance of retaliation. While she would not normally use her jewels so wastefully she needed Lancer's master dead before he could command Lancer to return. She held her gems aloft preparing to shout an incantation and…

Rin froze. The man's face had not shifted one muscle. All he had done was lift his sunglasses revealing two red orbs and her body had frozen. Her gems were in her hand prana circling through them, incantations were on her lips waiting to be yelled out but to no avail. She could practically feel the spear piercing through her chest as Lancer raced back. With what could be her last thoughts she cursed this stupid ritual.

Suddenly a whistling sounded through the air and there was an explosion behind her. Her body was released of its bindings and the man in front of her jerked his eyes closing as he was hit by projectiles that she couldn't see. Rin didn't wait to see how he reacted as the instant she was free she turned expecting to see the charging form of Lancer only to be confused once more as she saw Lancer standing there clutching his right arm with burns covering it. He stood cautiously back and gazed into the distance as if expecting to see whoever the mystery assailant was.

Rin took this opportunity to retreat behind her servant once more noticing that both Lancer and his Master were no longer focused on her. Gawain nodded to her full of concern but he kept eyeing both Lancer and Lancer's attacker.

Suddenly a whistle sounded through the park from somebody who was apparently not very good at whistling. Footsteps once again sounded through the park but this time it took a very short period of time before a person appeared from the darkness of the park. The identity of the person, made Rin want to both sigh in exasperation and wring her hands together in nervousness.

Shirou Inke walked casually into the standoff between the two feuding duos with the look of somebody taking a stroll on the beach. He wore a grey mottled set of clothes with a hoodie up which was quite unlike the usual brighter clothes he wore whenever not in the school uniform in the times that she had seen him out of school. And just as Rin was thinking of ways to get him out of here and hypnotize him later he had to open his big mouth.

"Hey," he said smiling at the two pairs. "All of you look pretty stressed. Do you want to see a card trick?" he said while raising a deck of cards in his right hand. Rin immediately noticed that he wore a navy glove on that hand.

Gawain raised an eyebrow at the sudden appearance of the man in front of him looking him up and down and Lancer spared him half a glance before once again scouring the horizon. At this point Rin was slightly panicking at the thought of Shirou getting caught up in it.

"Do you think you're fooling anybody?" the rough voice of the man rang out, the simple question sounding like an accusation.

"I think I was getting Rin there," Shirou replied and his casual smile was replaced by a look of slight mocking before falling off his face completely taking Rin completely by surprise.

"Oh well there's no reason to waste a good joke," Shirou said mostly to himself a faint smile crawling back on his face.

Rin was still recovering from the un-Shiroulike behaviour when the cards in his hand briefly glowed before he slammed his hands together and they disappeared. Feeling the surge of prana behind her Rin turned to see the cards glowing and lying on the ground at the feet of Lancer.

Lancer's eye's widened momentarily and he jumped high into the air escaping the cards which exploded immediately afterwards. Three loud cracks came from behind Rin and Lancer twisted his body in the air parrying two of the projectiles in his hand while the third barely missed his foot.

At the same time Lancer's Master had disappeared in an explosion although the reason couldn't be perceived by Rin. When the smoke faded Rin was treated to the sight of a very much okay Master wielding a massive black sword that caused Rin's breath to catch in her throat. The sword gave off an extremely cursed feeling and Rin found herself recoiling from it even as it was pointed at the man behind her.

"To redirect her arrows," Shirou said clapping his hands together his smile wide once more. "Truly you live up to your reputation . "

"You know who I am," the now named Mr. Strout stated to himself. "But I had no knowledge of somebody so strong living in this area."

"Well you know," Shirou said rubbing the back of his head. "Some of us enjoy our anonymity. "

"You know who I am," Lancer spoke up from beside Strout but it was almost phrased like a question.

"You're Patroclus right," Shirou said smirking. "I'd recognize the armour anywhere."

Lancer suddenly went very still and when next he looked at Shirou his look of fury was enough to make Rin recoil. He took a step forward but was halted by the voice of his master.

"Hold Lancer," he said. "The situation is unfavourable. You can settle any score you want later."

At that the man nodded to Shirou and turned around walking back into the blackness Lancer turning ethereal as he went.

Next to Rin Shirou sighed. "My, that is a bit concerning," he said. "Oh well, see you later Tohsaka."

As he turned to leave he was stopped by the form of Gawain who had stepped in front of him barring his exit.

"You were a magus the whole time,"Rin said her voice full of fury. "How, what, why…" she said trying to find her voice and ask the right question.

Shirou sighed cutting off Rin's train of thought. "Keep your questions; I'll talk to you tomorrow. Bye Rin," he said waving at her. He then clicked his fingers and mist descended on all three of them and when it faded he was gone leaving the stoic Gawain and the still spluttering Rin.

"Friend of yours," Gawain inquired sending his master a small smile.

"No," Rin stated earnestly after a few moments quiet her voice filled with weariness. "I've had enough of tonight. I'll interrogate him tomorrow."

As Gawain faded from sight next to her, Rin headed home her mind thrumming with questions.

 **Author Note: The start of the Grail War. I took less time than I thought because I only planned about seven chapters. I also polished off the first chapter of what will likely be my next Fanfic after White Ink. No that is not a subtle request to read and review. (Whistles innocently). I hope you enjoy the last and longest (by far) Arc of White Ink.**

 **Brush With Death: Shirou and Zelretch would just not get along. Any meeting between them would probably end up with the surrounding area/city/dimension in ruins.**

 **Please Read and Review.**


	27. World's Greatest Detective

Shirou walked down the empty streets to his house ignoring the chill breeze. His head was full of thoughts, conjectures and uncertainties. While he would normally have teleported straight home this time he decided to appreciate the time he spent walking home and use it to clear his mind. Despite the self-assurance he displayed when in front of Rizo-Waal Strout and Rin he was actually caught quite off guard by the presence of the Dead Apostle Ancestor. This was magnified by the selection of his servant. Achilles as a lancer was bad without taking into account any external factors but if the rumours from Clocktower he heard were true then right beyond their sight there was a whole other dimension of bad just waiting to unfurl. Sighing Shirou resolved to crank the bounded field up to maximum. While he would miss Taiga's antics in the mornings he wanted to keep her away from this approaching clusterfuck.

Turning left off the street he entered the yard of his house, the familiar bounded field washing over him as he passed the perimeter. His eyes momentarily displayed his shock as he was informed of the presence of another person in the house, then he relaxed. The person was sitting in the dining room and Nine was there with him, most likely serving him refreshments.

Stepping inside the hallway he noticed the brown coat hanging upon the coat hanger and silently wished he could have taken his own similar white coat out into the cold weather. The night was freezing and while his chosen attire was perfectly suitable in sneaking around it had no place in the battlefield of body temperature. Striding into the dining room he immediately started to analyse the person sitting down on the table and to his shock the man did the same to him as well, disguising it perfectly with a simple glance down the length of his body.

The man wore a brown waistcoat over a white shirt and brown pants. His hair was short and black and immaculately combed. His features were delicate and had the look of the English aristocracy. Off to his side was an umbrella. Most tellingly of all he carried in his hand a pipe of a very particular make. At this realisation Shirou was torn between smiling in happiness at the identity in front of him and groaning in despair.

"I see you recognized me Master of Rider," Sherlock Holmes said as he put the pipe to his lips. "I wonder how familiar you actually are with the Grail War."

Shirou sighed and sat down making his special hand sign to Nine that basically said, "Stow the tea and bring out the scotch." Nine acquiesced and in less than a minute two glasses filled with scotch were laid out in front of the two men.

"Unfortunately I know enough about the grail to know that your presence here means somethings fucked up royally," Shirou said morosely as he downed his glass and placed it down on the table where Nine promptly took it back to be refilled.

"Quite," the world's most famous detective said, showing slight distaste at Shirou's crude nature before he returned to his standard stoic look. "I must say that when I didn't expect to meet a fan in this part of the world. You must have a fine gift for languages to be able to read and enjoy Doyle's works despite not being your native language."

"I have always been very good at languages," Shirou admitted ignoring his curiosity at how Sherlock got his information. "English, German, French and even some languages from the orient," Shirou stated matter-of-factly, ignoring the fact that he was now calling it the orient. It seems he was subconsciously slipping into Victorian terms and from the look of the man opposite him it did not go unnoticed.

"A traveller I see," Sherlock concluded. "And no ordinary magus," he amended. "No the fact that you were able to learn so many languages speaks that you are not from a magus family who would have forced you to prioritise the study of magecraft over travelling and you are not a second son either or you wouldn't have inherited," Holmes concluded to himself glancing downwards for a moment. "Furthermore you have created a miracle of a familiar and use him as a servant rather than dismantling him to further your studies. That speaks of both your power and knowledge and your lack of concern for the standard magus goals. In fact this entire time you have showed both no concern for your wellbeing or eagerness to access Akasha. "Sherlock put down his pipe and looked at Shirou his blue eyes glowing in eagerness for a moment as if to pierce Shirou's thoughts. "It is a surprise to see a Magician enter the Holy Grail War."

Shirou couldn't help it. Overwhelmed he started to clap. "I really want you to sign my 'The Lost World' book," Shirou said impulsively to the man sitting opposite him.

Holmes merely smiled back, "A lover of irony also I see." Then his expression grew grave. "As a Ruler class I am bound by impartiality," he said. "No matter any personal feelings my job is only to prevent a servant rebellion and to protect the grail. I believe you are a good man but I can't help you," he finished.

"You've already helped me enough Servant Ruler," Shirou said. "Thank you for the warning. I will take all you have said under consideration."

Sherlock Holmes nodded to him and left the room Nine following him and assisting the Servant in leaving the house. After a while his smile at meeting THE Sherlock Holmes faded and a scowl overtook it.

"Damn," he said. "Fuck I'm glad Illya is out of the country now." About half a year ago Illya, now looking about sixteen had reappeared in the worlds stage as the head of the Einzbern family crushing any dissenting voices amongst the few remaining living members of the family. At Shirou's request Illya had taken Sakura as a show of good faith between members of the Einzbern family and the Matou. In actuality it was a fairly transparent attempt to get both of the former grails out of the city. Despite his skills he wasn't entirely sure that contamination wouldn't occur to either of those when the servants started to die.

In exchange the actual lesser grail, a vital part of the ceremony was constructed by Shirou, Illya and Sumire and hidden somewhere in the city where it couldn't be damaged. Staring into the night sky through his window he felt his servant materialize behind him.

"Master," she said with a voice like honey, "you looked quite pathetic mewling over that man like a child over his first sweetheart."

Shirou felt his smile grow wider, "How can I not," he said. "The greatest detective in the world suddenly showed up on my doorstep. Despite the bad news he brought, this memory is surely going to be one of my best."

"He also knew I was a Rider," the voice behind him stated. "You're so soft Master. Honestly why am I even spending any time with you. I usually prefer my men hard." Shirou could visualise her almost licking her lips like a hungry predator.

He prevented himself from turning around. That added temptation was not something he needed at the moment. He thanked his lucky stars every day that she did not obtain the Archer class and even greater freedom. Only by a large amount of prior studying of the Einzbern and Matou research was he able to modify the initial summoning ritual so that he could cut off the magic supply to his servant anytime. This allowed him to exert a modicum of control over an otherwise uncontrollable servant. At this point he remembered the words that he had heard from the entity in the Root so many years ago and wholeheartedly agreed with them. "Women will ruin you," he said.

"What did you say?" his servant said behind him. Instead of sounding angry her voice contained simple curiosity with a hint of another emotion.

"Nevermind," Shirou said shaking his head his thoughts still dwelling on the entity in the Root. Even after all these years he had yet to be able to comprehend it or even recollect its face. It was quite frankly a bit depressing to Shirou to see that some beings were still so far above him that he couldn't even perceive the level at which they operate at.

"My Master is going insane it seems," the voice behind him sounding regretful for a few moments. "Oh well I only need the body." He could almost picture her head pityingly. "Ready for some heavenly pleasure Master," the voice said and he could feel the breath on his neck.

Her body brushed up against his body, a rush of heat pooling in his lower regions and he had enough. His Magic circuits flared up his muscles tensed and he whirled around bent on killing his own servant.

However when he turned around he found only an empty room. His servant having already having left. He took a deep breath anger warring with arousal in his body.

And then he smiled. Unexpectedly it was not a dark smile promising revenge or an anticipatory smile of a future coupling. But a genuine smile that Shirou did not often show on his face. It was as if all the happiness was buried in his body was like water and it had welled up to such an extent that he couldn't help but let it out. It transformed his already somewhat handsome face into something beautiful for a split second before it disappeared as Shirou shook his head. With the faint remnants of the smile still on his face he left the room.

Just out of sight, ethereal and hidden in the corner of the room. A beautiful female servant tried to slow down her breath as she clutched her chest. Her face was slightly flushed she faded through the walls and went on patrol.

xxx

Rin couldn't sleep no matter how much she tossed and turned. It was already three 'o clock in the morning and she had the feeling that even if she entered dreamland at this very second she would be a zombie all through school. Staring into the darkness for the next few minutes she gave up on getting any sleep at all. Resolving herself to a day of slight loss of function and a long afternoon nap in return for being fresh enough to patrol tonight. Walking down to the kitchen she resolved to make herself a midnight snack.

While she was eating Gawain appeared in front of her bowing as he did so. Rin felt a sudden irrational stab of annoyance that he wasn't able to protect her but fought it down. It was her fault she summoned him to a war that he was at a disadvantage in and despite losing he had acquitted himself well. Gawain straightened up from his bow and spoke.

"Master," he said. "I believe I have the identity of lancer."

Rin perked up slightly hearing this. Knowing who the hero was could prevent them from further losing again. "Please tell me his identity Saber."

"Due to the words and actions of your classmate Inke I believe that Laner was Achilles the Greek hero."

Those words shocked Rin. Achilles was one of the most famous heroes of all time. In fact he was probably the second most famous Greek hero. Not to mention he was famed for his invulnerability except for one specific part of his body.

"Wait a minute," said Rin as a thought suddenly hit her. "The servant was hurt. I saw his arm covered in burns."

"Apparently your classmate Inke's servant has a way to bypass his invulnerability," Gawain said. "As for me, I was only able to land one blow and it did not harm him at all."

"Are you sure Saber," Rin said sceptically. "It seemed to be a bit of a stretch."

"Reasonably certain Master," Gawain replied unflapped. "I observed every strike that Inke made was against the feet and ankles of Lancer, after which Lancer accused him of knowing his secret identity."

Rin nodded her head. It was a reasonable deduction. Then a thought struck her. "Wait what did Inke say that caused you to believe he was Achilles?"

At this Gawain looked a bit annoyed, "The second piece of evidence was when Achilles accused him of knowing his identity. Shirou stated that he believed he was Patroclus." Rin nodded at this still not seeing the link. "Patroclus was Achille's best friend who with his permission donned his armour and took the field pretending to be him only to be killed when Hector killed him instead and stole his armour."

Rin paled at that. "So when he was saying that…" she trailed off.

"Yes he was deliberately goading him into battle by mocking him about the death of his friend. Those are not words that you use if you want to avoid a fight," Gawain said and Rin could detect an audible note of distaste in his voice.

Rin sighed, "That's the Inke I know. He really does not know how to back down from a challenge."

"Be careful of him Master," Gawain said and Rin looked at him with some surprise to see her servant looking at her seriously. "He's very dangerous. While I didn't see much of him I am fairly certain he was the one who attacked that vampire. A spell of that magnitude would easily kill a normal person." Gawain straightened up and a look of determination entered his eyes. "You should not meet him without me present and by your side."

Rin pondered that. She didn't believe that Shirou would ever hurt her, but apparently the Shirou she knew didn't even exist. She could still barely comprehend it. To think he knew about magecraft this whole time. It made his previous stance on the whole business seem invalid. To think all the times he mocked her about a belief in magic he was a magus this whole time.

In fact he had all but declared himself a magus to her face. Rin remembered the various times he had shown her his card tricks while stating that he was an excellent magician.

.

.

.

Rin choked on her snack trying to get air inside her lungs. After a second or two she felt a sharp strike on her back causing her to discharge the piece of food that had momentarily taken up residence in her windpipe. Even as she felt her servant rub his hands along her back and she gulped air into her lungs one thought rang though her head.

"No, surely not, he can't be."

 **Author Note: I did this chapter quickly so it is a bit shorter than the rest. Can you do me a favour? If you guess a servant or uncover some plot spoiling revalation can you PM me and I will confirm or deny it. (Within Reason) Rather than post it as a review for everybody to see. Thanks it would really help.**

 **Fathira: Yes it's going to be the last 'arc'. But it's going to be incredibly long. Probably equal to the rest of the story in length. Unfortunately all things have to end in time. It makes space for new things to begin. I am aware of outstanding plot threads and I... Without wishing to spoil. Let's say I'm on top of things.**

 **Gilgamesh King of Mongrels: Yes you're right. Correcting that fucking mistake was part of the reason I got the next chapter out so fast. I passed the 24hrs before I had the opportunity to correct it and I couldn't leave it there.**

 **BakonoftheUnknown: There are a lot more than 4 I promise you that. Making up a servant is something I could do. But there are so many it's almost more of a problems to find historical figures that Nasu hasn't got his hands on.**

 **RIDDicK0011: Congrats you got the Lancer correct.**

 **DPSS: Rizo-Waal Strout. Another Dead Apostle Ancestor. Man there are so many dead in the story that soon I'm going to be able to claim something artsy like white is the colour of death in Japan and it is contrasted by the natural blackness of ink which indicates how Dead Apostles naturally disrupt the state of life or death. Or some nonsense like that.**


	28. DEATH comes back to life

Arcueid sat in an expensive hotel meditating on the covers of the bed plush bed. And if her meditation looked like her taking a nap, well there was nobody around to judge. Arcueid had first started meditating when she heard that it was something that martial artists do. So she had gone about it and it had only taken a few minutes before she got bored and wandered off to ask Sumire about it. Sumire had clarified that meditation and its practices were a vital part of some martial arts but boxing wasn't one of them.

Arcueid had been about to give up before Sumire sat her down and explained to her that meditation also taught self-control, reduced stress and did other good things for the body and brain. While she wasn't so concerned with the body aspect of it, apart from when she got stabbed on her lines of death she was never in less than perfect health, she was really intrigued when Sumire stated that meditation can reduce the physiological need for blood.

She had never been as scared in her life when she had come out of her blood induced madness that day several years ago to the bleeding body of Shirou in her arms. Since that day she had rationed her strength carefully measuring it out and being absolutely sure not to draw too much power. Even after Shirou had gifted her one of his custom made mystic codes meant to supress bloodlust she still had taken to meditation like a women possessed.

Slowly opening her eyes she raised herself out of bed with all the ease and self-assuredness of an apex predator. She stretched her hands up into the air while taking one last deep breath and then slowly exhaled her hands falling to her side. Striding over her baggage she picked up and unrolled it. Normally she was pretty useless at magecraft. The only person she could maybe best would be Nine and she was pretty sure that he might just let her win to assuage her feelings.

This didn't come from a lack of power however or even a lack of knowledge. Despite her naivety she was not an idiot, she knew enough about magecraft just by osmosis that she could easily debate with some of the most experienced magi on the planet, (if the stuck up assholes ever hosted a debate on magecraft in the first place.) The problem came about due to her own connection with nature. Strictly speaking she had no magic circuits, but her Od was far more powerful than almost any other being in the world. Control was her constant problem.

This ritual however she was assured by Shirou required no control at all. She was free to use as much Od as she wanted to start it. Unwrapping the mat she laid it on the ground as she didn't want to get any blood on the floor. Taking out a piece of parchment she laid it by the side of the mat. Inspecting the image that was traced on the parchment she sliced open her wrist using her fingernail and using the dripping blood she carefully copied the circle down onto the mat using that blood.

Stepping beside the circle she placed her left foot on the line and opened up a short booklet that possessed the title, "So you want to summon a servant," by Shirou Inke. In the book it contained the basics such as summoning circle, catalysts and command seals. Then it further went to explain various modifications that Shirou conjectured would work. Then it segued into various topics such as the role of a grail, the difference between heroic and divine spirits and the throne of heroes. Arcueid had briefly read through it all but in the end decided to summon the servant vanilla. By doing it this way then she would get the best compatibility between her and her servant which is something she desired.

Shirou, she knew, went even further on the road of safety by not only using no catalyst but modifying the ritual in such a way that he could drain the prana from his summoned servant in an instant. Arcueid actually acknowledged his wisdom because when it came to this as his servant was tricky and could be quite cruel sometimes, and seemed inordinately interested in seducing Shirou. On the other hand she had a good taste in movies and the both of them spent the last two nights watching romance movies while she gave Arcueid advice on the act of lovemaking, she couldn't believe she had been doing it wrong for years. Yeah she may be a slight problem for Shirou but she was developing into a great friend.

Arcueid shook her head. While she got along well with her new Romcom buddy she had to move out of the house to avoid cross catalyst contamination that Shirou theorized could take place if too many powerful creatures are in close enough contact to the summoning ritual. That was why she found herself in this hotel preparing to summon her servant instead of in the "Sumirou" ritual room in Shirou's house.

Arcueid started reading out the chant that would summon her servant adding no special modifications to her speech. The result was rather underwhelming as she felt a brief amount of prana leave her body before a flash of light and her servant appeared in front of her.

She blinked in shock as the person who stood in front of her. Far from being a warrior of legend this person appeared to be wearing modern clothing. He wore a blue shirt covered by a black overcoat. His black hair trailed down to his shoulders and he had bandages covering her face. He pulled down some of the bandages revealing a shockingly bright blue eye before it was gone covered by the bandages again. For some reason Arcueid had the persistent feeling that she had met him before.

"Hello Arcueid," he said his mellow voice containing the slightest hint of teasing. "I didn't expect to see you here. What desire could you have that would make you participate in the grail war for?"

"Have we met," Arcueid said deliberately trying to dredge up information.

The man with his eyes covered still smiling pulled out a knife from out of his pocket the blade flicking open as he drew it. "Does this jog your memory," he said still smiling.

"Shiki," Arcueid said remembering, as phantom pains flared up all over her body at the sight of the only weapon to ever harm her. "You're became a hero."

"Well more of an urban legend," the now revealed Shiki Tohno said. "But you wouldn't know that would you?" he sighed. "You're not my Arcueid." For a moment he looked almost heartbreakingly sad before the look faded. "Come on I can tell its dark outside you can tell me about it while we patrol."

And at that he turned around and left the room leaving a confused but interested Arcueid following him.

xxx

"So I died, killed by my own sister," Shiki said as he and Arcueid patrolled the streets of Fuyuki. "And then she was killed by your boyfriend Shirou."

Shiki raised his hand to his chin deep in thought. "Tell me," he said. "Does this Shirou have a sword fetish? Is drawn to wars? Constantly tries to save people?"

"I don't think he likes swords, he mostly uses water magecraft. He may be drawn to wars," Arcueid said tilting her head in thought. "I mostly think he's drawn to troublesome situations. He sometimes saves people but I don't think he goes out of his way to do so."

"Yeah, so he's not the one I know, that's good," Shiki said. "I don't think I could deal with that prick turning up right now."

"So how did you become a hero Shiki," Arcueid asked curiously.

"Well I was friends with your counterpart," Shiki said nostalgically, "and we went on all kinds of adventures. I killed a few Dead Apostle Ancestors and a few corrupt and evil humans. Eventually after enough people died by my knife the title I was using of DEATH became engraved into the human consciousness and I ascended to the throne. Or at least that's how the book says it works," Shiki admitted gesturing to the booklet that Arcueid used to summon now held in his hands.

"So what class are you," Arcueid asked.

"Assassin of course," Shiki replied candidly. "You don't have to refer to me as such. The Shiki Tohno that became a hero never existed in this world and it won't give away either my powers or my identity."

They walked in silence for a while. "How are you feeling," Arcueid said her voice slightly lower. "Doesn't it hurt seeing a world where you died so soon or where your sister died?"

Shiki sighed and put his hands in his pockets, "I will admit it's not the most comfortable experience. But ever since the day I was first killed by my brother; I resolved to live life enjoying every moment. While I never wanted to die, I'm happy that even in this world that I managed to live for eight years after that incident." He smiled at Arcueid. "Beside my version of Akiha was having twins at the time of my death," he said smiling. "Anyway this is your world, your story. Just use me to facilitate whichever wish you have."

"Well said," a voice came from the darkness and a black-haired child appeared in front of both of them fading in from the darkness. He was dressed in a white knee high robe and black pants and shoes. "It is nice to see somebody with such a positive outlook on life."

"Merem Solomon," said Arcueid and Shiki together. Briefly glancing at each other Shiki indicated that Arcueid could ask first. "What are you doing here Merem?" she said with a note of accusation in her voice. "Are you participating in the holy grail war?"

Merem let out a slight scowl which just made him look even more childish. "No," he said. "Unfortunately I haven't been chosen by the grail. Actually I'm administrating it. Would you believe that the priest in the church came down with a sudden heart curse?"

At seeing the pairs' dubious looks Merem attempted to defend himself. "No I'm actually being serious. I opened up his heart and cursed black liquid poured out."

"Merem Solomon," said Arcueid looking quite baffled. "Did you just admit to killing a priest?"

"Hahaha," Merem laughed nervously as shuffled a bit. "He was really asking for it and besides he was actually really quite evil."

"Right," Arcueid said dubiously. "And for what reason did you come all the way out here and kill this 'evil' priest," she continued layering her voice with an inflection that stated that she was considering avenging poor father Kotomine right then and there.

"I'm sorry Princess," Merem Solomon said; bowing to the True Ancestors surprise. "Unfortunately this event is too important for me to miss, even at your instruction."

"This is more than just a normal grail war isn't it," Shiki suddenly spoke up; his bandaged eyes meeting Merem's exactly. "Whatever is going on here is something that you wouldn't get a chance to see it again. Whatever it is must be important for you to oppose Arcueid."

Merem raised his head and regarded Shiki, "You appear to know of me but I have never seen you before. Even if we've never personally met if we existed in the same time period I would have heard of you." Suddenly Merem Solomon smiled, "Tell me how the future is. Do they have flying cars yet," he said excitedly.

Shiki almost flinched at Merem's accurate observation but regained control over himself and only stared the Ancestor down.

"Fine," said Merem pouting after a moment. "Princess it is not about what I'm trying to see but what I'm trying to not see completed."

His childish look disappeared to be replaced by a look of urgency, "Bring your allies to the church tomorrow night if you want the full story. Now you should leave. Even with all your power Princess the streets are not safe to walk alone."

"She's not alone," Shiki said stepping forward. "Don't worry Merem we'll meet you tomorrow in the church."

At this Merem smiled, "I'm glad to hear that," he said and promptly turned around and left turning into a side street and disappearing from their view.

"I am still the last remaining True Ancestor you know Shiki," Arcueid said huffily. "Unless the White Beast of Gaia or Type-Mercury arrives I find it very unlikely there will be anything I cannot truly handle. "

"What about a student with a knife," Shiki retorted.

Arcueid opened her mouth to retort and then closed it. "Nope," she said emphatically. "I don't win these so I'm not going to fight. We should head to Shirou's house; while we're technically enemies while this whole Grail War is going on I'm pretty sure he won't care."

"Really," Shiki said. "He's not going to fight you over his wish."

"No," Arcueid said. "He is facing Gilgamesh during this war. That's taking almost all of his attention right now. He also confessed that if he won he would probably just take the grail and turn it into one of his mystic codes."

Shiki whistled, "Gilgamesh, the servant I presume. That's not going to be an easy fight. I don't think I could win that one. Better that he fight him than me."

The two of them walked in silence until they eventually arrived at Shirou's house. Arcueid walked to the side of the gate and tapped a few specific stones, runes briefly appearing and disappearing as she tapped them.

"It's only because you're an unidentified quantity," she stated to Shiki's silent question. "I don't have to do it because I'm registered in the boundary field."

They both stepped forward and into the house and an oppressive feeling descended on both of them. Prana containing curses and spells that would kill any human went on hair trigger and runes on the floor started glowing.

"Oh," said Arcueid. "The war bounded field is up. Shirou it's me Arcueid." The feeling didn't disappear and instead seemed to heighten. "Okay, you want proof." Arcueid went into thought for a moment. "At every hotel that you frequent overseas you always sign with the name Kishcur Zelretch Schweirnog. The few times that I went with you, you asked me to sign as Altrouge Brunestud."

The oppressive feeling faded, the runes disappeared and the house fell silent. The front door swung open revealing Shirou who casually walked out into the front yard. "That's because it's funny," Shirou said. "It also helped me once to discover out a magus in the vicinity."

He turned towards Arcueid's companion, "Hello Shiki," he said. "You're looking quite well."

"How did you know that was Shiki," Arcueid said grumpily. "I didn't know until he showed me that knife."

"He's wearing modern clothing, bandages that serve to protect himself from the backlash of powerful mystical eyes, when he pulled down the bandages in response to my security system I noticed they were bright blue and he would have a connection to you; and you just confirmed it now, thank you Arcueid," Shirou finished.

The man in question stepped forward pulling down his bandages and eyed Shirou. "You're not like the Shirou I knew," he said after only a moment. "Your lines also hang looser upon your body."

"Oh what does that mean," Shirou asked intrigued.

"I don't know," Shiki replied back calmly. "I haven't seen something like that before."

"Shirou," Arcueid interrupted. "We meet Merem on the way here."

"Wasn't he the DAA No.20," Shirou said pulling out a booklet and flipping through to a random page. "Yes, he was with the church. Is he their representative?"

"Yes," he is Arcueid said and relayed the story of poor father Kotomine.

"Man," Shirou said. "Gil will be crushed, he always liked that guy. Maybe after this is done we'll hold a funeral for him."

"Merem wanted to speak to us about this war," Arcueid said. "He said that we should meet him at the church tomorrow night."

"I have to meet Rin tomorrow night," Shirou replied. "You can go and maybe take Satsuki with you." His expression grew darker. "I have a feeling I already know what this is about."

"Care to enlighten us ignorant newcomers," Shiki piped up from his position beside Arcueid.

"Not yet," Shirou replied. "At this point in time it's only a hunch. My advice is to play on the defensive and try to defuse fights for the moment. Arcueid have you felt the leylines recently."

"They feel incredibly low Shirou," Arcueid said frowning. "Is this usual?"

"No," Shirou replied gazing at the moon. "Nothing about this situation is usual in the slightest."

 **Author Note: I have a feeling I'm going to get a lot of flak for the selection of servant. Please keep this review section a meme-free zone. Seriously. Please. For the record I love reviews and anonymous ones are no exception but anonymous reviews that just trash my story is the literary equivalent of throwing shit on my wall at night. If you feel so strongly either sign in and comment or PM me so I can defend myself and explain my point of view. Thank you.**

 **YuukiAsuna-Chan Sorry no Illya pairing. Not that I dislike the character but she serves more as a MacGuffin then a MC in this fic. In addition I am of the firm belief that the alteration of origin and element would fall under soul and third magic. While he could probably change his concept from being human to something else he wouldn't recognize himself and would subconsciously change back.**

 **As for your question about the movies I don't understand the question.**

 **Fathira I have a multitude of ideas about what stories to do next. It is very easy to think up ideas but quite a bit harder to put those ideas into practice. My Rosario No Vampire fic I think has some real potential so I will likely do that one next. Although I'm thinking about doing a chapter next time I write a particularity big cliffhanger.**


	29. Caster to H8

Satsuki sat on the couch in the rented hotel. Her job with Sumire paid well enough that she could easily afford to splurge a bit and pay for one with a bit of class. She had deliberately picked a different one to Arcueid due to Shirou's hypothesized cross catalyst contamination and thus the ascetic of the room was that of a traditional Japanese hotel and not the western one on the opposite end of town. She had hoped by now to have already summoned her servant but she had held off until later when the call from her mentor came through. Her left hand itched with the feel of command seals upon them and she longed to officially enter the grail war.

She was painfully aware that by entering the war that she deliberately put herself up against Shirou and Arcueid, two beings that could probably fight an entire army and come out not much worse for wear. The logical thing to do in this situation was to stand aside and let them both eliminate the rest of the competition before duking it out but she refused to sit on the sidelines cowering away from those who may be stronger than her.

She had trained with Sumire over the past year ever since her woeful performance during the Tatari incident. In the times that she had off work she had honed both her fighting skill and the power of her reality marble fighting against the much older woman. Even as her defence was crushed and her mana depletion field was overwhelmed, she persevered growing stronger by the day and learning strengthening magic and perfecting her ability to teleport. She even managed to increase the power of her reality marble so that it can drain a person's Od directly.

She grimaced at a sudden memory. Sumire had praised the development of the ability and then stated that it was still immature and wouldn't harm anybody with an above average lifeforce. Shirou was surprisingly harsher, calling it a half-priced knock off of Akiha Tohno's abilities that lacked any great potential. He had said it with absolute certainty and without any cruelty which only made it worse. It had been a depressed Satsuki who had reluctantly turned away from the ability.

A sudden knock from the door resounded in the empty room and in the next instant the chamber was occupied by another. Sumire had entered the room in a bold red bikini and carrying a glass of Champagne in her arm. In an instant she had laid the champagne out on the nearby table, produced two glasses and filled both of them to the brim.

"Come sit down Satsuki," she called to her apprentice flashing a smile at her shocked look. "I have good news."

Satsuki knelt down on the other side of the table facing Sumire. She was slightly flummoxed by the actions of her teacher. Initially she thought that she would have shown up with a catalyst for the war or at least with a gameplan. Yet it seemed as if her mentor just wanted to reminisce with her. She felt a pang of annoyance that she stifled. This was meant to be her moment to shine, to step out from the shadow of those stronger than her. She could have summoned her servant by now and got to know them.

But still she just couldn't remain irritated at Sumire. The woman had done an immeasurable amount for her. Ever since she had gotten bitten, Shirou had operated on her and she had become something else she had found a wall between her others. She barely called her parents anymore and the few times she had met up with her friends since had been awkward as the things that they had treated with such importance had become so inconsequential. She found she could no longer relate to them. She had then gone to her new friends slightly panicked and heard their response.

Shirou had informed Satsuki that secrets destroy relationships and a secret of that size would cause small cracks in the day-to-day. He then stated that he would be glad to be her friend.

Arcueid had cheerfully concurred stating that she would be continue to be Satsuki's friend even if other people stopped liking her.

Sumire had gone above and beyond, finding her a job when she had felt listless, teaching her about the nature of the world when she felt clueless and training her when she felt helpless. So she remained patient as the water vampire drained her glass.

"Here," Sumire said handing her a dagger that was wrapped in a bow. "This is your graduation present."

.

.

.

"What," Satsuki said. "What do you mean by graduation?"

"Congratulations," Sumire said smiling. "No longer are you my apprentice. I deem you fit to go out into the wide world."

"Why, why now of all times?" Satsuki spluttered accusingly. "I'm about to start the Holy Grail War and now I'm on my own."

Sumire eyed her up for the moment and then smiled wide. "Yup," she said. "I can no longer teach you anything more."

At this she got up to leave only to have her arm grabbed by Satsuki.

"Why teacher," she said with just a note of despair in her voice. "I need you. Arcueid and Shirou are too strong for me to face yet. I'll just lose and it will be humiliating."

"No," said Sumire and her voice contained a harsh note so unlike the usual cheer that it briefly caused her former apprentice to recoil. "Satsuki Yumizuka the schoolchild would have lost without a fight. Satsuki Yumizuka the newborn prodigy vampire would have been destroyed. You, my Satsu are not those people anymore."

Sumire turned to face her young friend raising her hands in the air. "Your speed and strength could compare to the weaker ancestors despite being far younger. Your magic power is strong even among the ancestors, your use of magic is efficient and your teleportation is something that gives you an advantage over all but four beings in the world."

Sumire lowered her arms. "Do you know your weakness Satsu." At the younger vampire's shaking head Sumire sighed. "Stop this," she commanded and a bolt of purple light shot from a pointing finger towards Satsuki.

Satsuki immediately summoned her reality marble draining the mana away in front of her causing the purple bolt to unravel. Before it could finish she was forced to dodge letting the remainder of the purple bolt fly past and impact the wall. She turned back to see Sumire shaking her head. "That simple spell would have been blocked unconsciously by the version of you just four years ago," Sumire said plainly shocking her young companion. "Your reality marble has actually grown weaker over time. It has become like an ill-suited shirt. Sometimes it's just better to ditch it and put on a bikini," Sumire said stretching showing off her assets.

"What are you saying," Satsuki said disbelievingly. "I shouldn't use it."

"I've retired from being your master," Sumire said. "You've all grown up Satsu. Time to figure it out yourself." At these last words Sumire teleported from the room.

Satsuki flopped down on the couch suddenly feeling less confident than she was beforehand. Feeling the weight in her hand she examined the dagger she had received. Besides the red ribbon that was tied to the dagger there was also a note attached. Opening the note she began to read to herself.

To Satsu

No doubt I have already expounded on your problems with your reality marble by now. The dagger is meant to act as a stopgap. It focuses the power of the users into the blade causing it to drain mana, od and prana into anything the blade hits.

Shirou helped a bit but I mostly made it.

Love you Satsu

Sumire

Putting down the letter she noticed the blade. It was dark black with wavy characters done in navy script in a very distinctive style. "Shirou helped a bit my butt," she said. "I need to clear my head.

At that thought she grabbed her jacket and headed into the cold night air.

xxx

There was a chill wind that Satsuki did not notice as she walked down the streets of Miyama. Thoughts bubbled inside her head and the command seals on her hand prickled as if to tell her to get on with this. She was honestly thinking of giving up on being a Master. The one consolation would be that neither Arcueid nor Shirou would kill her but neither would they treat her with kid's gloves.

Not for the first time she contemplated the reasons both of them had participated in this battle. Shirou was going at it focused on his long-awaited battle with Gilgamesh and Arcueid most likely thought that whatever they were doing was fun. Even if they didn't have that reason she knew that they could both come out of it without any repercussions as they were both extremely strong.

"I wish I could be strong like that," Satsuki said to herself in frustration.

"Are you sure you desire that kind of strength," a feminine voice spoke up from behind Satsuki. Whirling around she was confronted by the figure of a beautiful woman with brown hair and blue eyes. She wore a tailored man's business suit which did absolutely nothing to distract from the perfection that was her figure. On her face was a beautiful smile as she examined Satsuki.

"There are many types of strength," the woman continued. "There is strength of will, of character, of mind and of body. Maybe you are looking for the wrong strength."

Satsuki just continued to stare at the woman for a moment before she snapped out of her daze. "Sorry," she said shamefacedly due to her staring. "My name is Satsuki."

"My name is Leone," the gorgeous woman said still smiling. "And what is such a beautiful woman doing looking for strength."

"Aha, you heard that," Satsuki said blushing.

"Of course," Leone said. "Feel free to unload your problems on me. Let me see if I could offer any advice."

Satsuki opened her mouth to talk to decline the offer and then she shut it. She would likely never see the woman again and she had come to no conclusions on her own.

"I'm entering a competition," she said heavily censoring the events. "And the competition is better than me. I'm considering just quitting. I don't know how I would cope if after all my hard work I just lost humiliatingly."

The woman just nodded at her, "What are you trying to prove," she said. "And who are you trying to prove it to."

"What do you mean?" Satsuki asked curiously, surprised at the unusual answer.

"Your words gave no indication that you sought to win this competition for a prize. They imply that your self-esteem and pride is your reason for entering." At seeing Satsuki's confused look she clarified. "Your reason for not entering is that you believe it will only humiliate you. That is the language of somebody who has something to prove. The only question is to whom you have to prove it."

Satsuki was momentarily silent as she digested the words. For a moment she ignored the woman who just sat in silence and watched with that persistent smile on her face. Truth is that she didn't know the answer. Despite being her mentor Sumire had already as good as stated that she already was aware of Satsuki's potential and that her student had already proven that her apprenticeship was well worth the investment in time.

She thought back to her other friends Shirou and Arcueid. Just once she would like to surprise both of them and wow them with her power, but that was more of a side bonus than the true reason.

She contemplated the question for a few more seconds before she came up with a sudden indisputable answer.

"Myself," she said. "I want to prove to myself that I am extraordinary and that I deserve to be up there with my friends." That was the truth. In the end Satsuki was a magical prodigy but compared to a Magician and the Last True Ancestor she was ordinary. For once in her life she was completely honest with herself. She didn't want to reach her potential; she wanted to surpass her potential. There was no inherently noble goal. She had simply come to disdain her past incomplete self and she desperately wanted to reach her glorious complete future self.

"My goal is simply to be the best I can be," she said completely honestly causing Leone to look at her and quirk and eyebrow. "Thank you for the advice, I need to go enter a competition now." With one last smile towards her confidant she turned and headed back to the hotel.

xxx

The room was set up with the proper procedures for summoning a servant. The simple circle was drawn on the floor in chalk. The ritual was remarkably simple if no modifications were done to it and Satsuki desired to add only one large variation.

The command seals acted as a key to access the power of the grail. The circle acted as a beacon to draw and bind the servant. The catalyst acted as a method by which to select from the vast library of heroic spirits.

Stepping forward Satsuki walked until she was at the edge of the circle. Then she stuck her hand with the command seals in. Forgoing the usual chant she simply pumped all her prana into the first command seal.

"My perfect servant," she intoned. "Come from the throne of heroes and team up with me."

A flash of light caused her to briefly cover her eyes and take a step back. Blinking to clear her eyes, she saw a figure that was lacking in height.

"What a pathetic child to have summoned me," the words tumbled out and Satsuki was able to get her first glimpse at her servant. "A worm that flings itself into the mouth of birds praying futilely to turn into a butterfly."

The servant that stood in front of her was a child with blue hair and wearing old fashioned clothing. He had an aristocratic look and sharp eyes.

"Are you my servant," Satsuki asked.

"You truly lack the brains of even the slowest ass," the servant huffed. "I am the ally you have called. My name is Hans Christian Anderson. I am basically useless in combat simply a third rank servant suitable for a weak Master."

"I am not weak," Satsuki replied back vehemently.

"Your mind and soul fester like pus," the servant answered back. "Any tenacity you gather is like broken glass. Like a fool that decides to undertake a journey but is too petrified to even leave the house. What a waste of potential."

Satsuki looked as if she was about to retort, and then stopped. Taking a breath she smiled. "Thank you," she said. "You have my thanks for bolstering my resolve. Feel free to criticize this humble fool any time you want. But as some motivation," she said raising her hand.

"Hans Christian Anderson, record my story accurately down to every last scrap of detail," she said as the second command seal on her hand faded away. "That should be some motivation for you to assist me. You wouldn't want to write a poor story, would you?"

Her servant looked at her again with such intensity from her piercing eyes and then smiled. "Alright," he said holding his hand out to shake. "I can work with this." As she took his hand and shook it her servant spoke up again. "Master, let's make your story one that will retold until the end of the world."

 **Author Note: This chapter was hard to get out. Anderson is a bitch to write.**

 **Fathira Not really. Gilgamesh is still incarnated.**

 **Celestial Brush Wow I haven't thought about Lupine Horror's story for a while. Actually now that I think about it both Inke and Black Wing are the same in some ways and the complete opposites in the others. Both magicians and regularily create mystic codes, enjoy experimenting with magic and surrounded by woman, both have Len as a familiar.**

 **But Inke is active and masculine. Black Wing is passive and feminine. Inke would actually be Neutral Good. Black Wing would be True Neutral. Inke is extroverted. Black Wing is introverted. Inke regularly seeks out confrontation and Black Wing likes to be left alone. Huh what are the odds.**


	30. Kings and Queens

_A woman stood sobbing into the arms of a man. While beautiful the beauty was marred by the tears that ran down her face obscuring her makeup and causing her provocative dress to make her look vulnerable instead. She looked at the man who embraced her, eyes full of tears and nose running._

" _Why did this happen," she said. "Why did it happen to me," she suddenly yelled out her eyes red and flushed. The man just held her tighter and ran her hand through his hair._

" _I didn't do anything to him," she choked out the words. "I hate him, I hate him. Where is he?" She began to yell her crying face morphing into one that was visibly enraged._

" _Calm down…" the man began._

" _Tell me now," the woman yelled. "How dare he do this to me? I'll kill him." Her hand moved down her and then flinched. "How dare you cover for him?"_

 _The man examined her look of sorrow on his face and sighed. "I did not cover for him," he said. "You will get your justice." The man sighed. "The man is in a city eight hours to the north in the mountains of Sumer."_

 _The woman turned to leave the building and inflict justice when the voice of the man spoke out from behind her once more. "Judge the person and then put the matter to rest. Be very wary Inanna that you do not let this event gain any power of you."_

" _Do not worry," Inanna turned back smiling briefly as if to assure her companion. I will judge the man and then no longer shall my wrath fall upon the land."_

 _She turned around and left as the scene rippled and faded._

xxx

Shirou woke up in his bed. Yawning and surprised that Nine had not woken him up he lazily observed the clock. The clock read a very unusual five 'o clock that caused images of the last night to well up inside him. Groaning he realised he had an appointment with Rin sometime today. While they had not agreed on a specific time that they would meet, Shirou preferred to go during the night and sleep and adjust his wards during the day.

In fact that was what he was doing the whole day. By using his vast knowledge of bounded fields he had broken over the years combined with his Magic he had succeeded in altering and activating his War Wards. The pretentious name aside, they were originally simply a remarkable bounded field that absorbed a certain amount of excess prana from the environment and created a spot of background noise which prevented them from being sensed while simultaneously informing Shirou of any threats that have entered the premises. Once the wards were triggered by the unannounced presence of a non-human invader they would activate and the aforementioned invader would be destroyed by a combination of runes and pre-programmed spells that would activate and be supplemented by powerful mystic codes.

Unfortunately they would not handle a Dead Apostle Ancestor, much less an ancestor and servant combination. To that end he had spent the remainder of the night and the start of the morning until ten 'o clock deactivating the current bounded field and implementing a defence system he had previously designed but not actively installed. He had cracked open his prior study into the use of teleportation as a defence and installed a bounded field that not only provided one hundred percent concealment if the enemy was not aware of the place but also immediately teleported any invaders that entered the premises back out. While the defence was far more complete is was also far more fragile and Shirou was well aware that once the unique space magic was gone then the house would be laid bare in future, but it would suffice for now.

Getting up after stretching for a bit he walked down to the kitchen and indulged in a meal prepared by his faithful servant. While eating he planned what he was going to do today. "Nine," he said to the butler preparing more food to be eaten later. "Arcueid is in the house but I do not know where Satsuki is. Please track her down and inform her that the circumstances of the war have changed."

His servant nodded and smiled at Shirou once more before leaving the room. A flex of his prana and the house was examined for traces of other life. In the room on the opposite end of the hallway Arcueid lay sleeping in the room. When the spell washed over the room Shiki materialised and looked around briefly before once again fading into immateriality.

There was no sign of Rider in the house. Shirou sighed; honestly she spent as much time trying to get into his pants as she did evading him. He still just couldn't figure her out. He had hoped that the dream cycle would have shed some light on her state of mind but so far despite three visions it had not helped him overmuch. In fact so far it was his least favourite part of being a master. Hopefully the following dreams were more informative and had nothing in common with the second dream. He had to struggle to consciously keep the pity off his face the following day. He did not think his servant would appreciate it.

He didn't need his servant for the upcoming meeting. He had given it some thought and decided that by not bringing his servant into Rin's house he would decrease the current tension and confuse her enough so that he could place her on the backfoot. However there was no need to chance it. A simple thought informed Rider that he was going out to Rin's and he would like her to be back on standby. The reply made him intimately aware of the fact that he hadn't yet bathed and he resolved to keep the water ice-cold when he did so.

xxx

Shirou was dressed up for battle and with all his mystic codes on hand for his night-time rendezvous with his magus classmate. He was not worried about Rin, even though she was a jewel magus was not a threat. While jewelcraft allowed her to hit above her weight class by releasing years of accumulated prana at one time she lacked his speed, defensive ability and fighting experience. The real reason he had to be cautious was her servant. Even though the Saber class servant was losing quite decisively against Achilles the prior night his abilities were still not to be underestimated. As a servant he was far stronger than all but the most powerful of humans and Shirou knew that he would not be able to say that he could defeat him with any certainty without knowing any more about him.

With his Magic he added the concept of [concealment] to himself. The concept would immediately break in the event of combat and beings with mystic eyes or servants with good perception could probably still pick up on his location. But he had a very good reason for using it. Using his magic once again he disappeared from his house and appeared in Tohsaka's. He had once invaded her house before in the search of any atrocities committed by her and to his joy she had found her clean.

He used that knowledge now to teleport into the kitchen. Inspecting and observing that it had not changed much in the year since he had last been there, he started swiftly making some tea and biscuits using the hosting magus' supplies. Finishing up he disposed of the teabags and laid the table. Standing to the left of the entryway he let out a swift burst of prana and concealed himself once more.

The sound of footsteps resounded through the house and Rin burst through the door panting with exertion and holding a red jewel aloft. She took one look at the room and came to a screeching stop. "What," she said before her voice ceased leaving her mouth to open and close soundlessly.

Shirou decided to put her out of her misery for the moment. "Hello Rin," he said speaking up from her side. "I'm here to have our discussion now."

His classmate whirled raising that red gem and pointing at him as her prana flared and her lips moved in what no doubt was about to be a spell before she visibly clamped down on her actions with all the subtlety of a man hitting the emergency brake on the train. To her side Gawain materialised holding an easy stance but still one in which he could react if necessary. Rin took a deep breath, closed her eyes and counted under her breath until she was calm. That being said it was truly unfortunate that just as soon as she had recovered her composure she opened her eyes to see Shirou dunking one of her special chocolate biscuits in the tea.

After that it took another ten seconds of deep breathing and counting under her breath before she sat down opposite her classmate. "Is there a reason why you're eating all of my food and drinking my tea?"

"Sure is Rin," Shirou said, his voice chipper. "I knew you would offer me hospitality as is only right, so I decided to pre-empt you and make myself some tea and I made you some as well. No need to thank me Rin."

"And why does my guest think he's so welcome in this house," said Rin visibly annoyed at the presumption of the person sitting opposite her.

"Why, didn't you want to talk to me Rin? If I'm so unwelcome in this house I can leave right now," Shirou said.

"No," Rin said and sighed. "Let's get this conversation over with before my headache gets any bigger than it is." She took a deep breath. "Why didn't you tell me that you were aware of magecraft?"

"Why didn't you tell me you had such a lovely house Rin? I'm still thinking of redecorating my own in a similar western style."

"Answer the question Shirou," Rin said through gritted teeth.

"You are recognized as the second owner of Fuyuki by the Mage Association. I have never nor will I ever be subordinate to that organisation," Shirou said staring at Rin and the intensity in his brown eyes forced her to take a step back. "Quite frankly as long as they leave me alone they are all free to live long happy lives."

He stopped there and the silence stretched on as the unspoken implication in his sentence sat heavily in the room.

Rin swallowed suddenly feeling her mouth run dry. She still had mountains of things to ask him but for the first time she got the hint that her eccentric, smiling and occasionally annoying classmate was not so harmless after all. Besides her she felt her servant tighten his grip on his sword and she took a small amount of comfort in the fact that it was two on one.

"How did you know the vampire," Rin asked. Shirou blinked at the question.

"Excuse me," he said.

"You knew the Dead Apostle's name," Rin replied challengingly. "Don't you think it's a bit of a coincidence for a vampire to show up in my town and then suddenly you of all people know who he is?"

She stopped talking as she took in Shirou's expression. His right eyebrow was raised and he had such a flabbergasted expression on his face that, if not for the seriousness of the situation she would have burst into laughter.

"The man's name is Rizo-Waal Strout," Shirou said. Rin just had a look of expectation on her face. "You're fucking kidding me. He's Dead Apostle No.6."Rin's expectant look had morphed to one of fear even as he continued. "And he's the right hand to Altrouge Brunestud. Now you know what you were dealing with," he said as Rin started to panic.

Shirou sighed and clapped his hands and some water appeared above Rin's head before falling down and drenching the poor girl. She turned and glared at him but before she could say anything she was interrupted by Shirou. "Calm down," he said. "Firstly I would like to arrange a momentary truce." He pressed on without giving Rin a chance to stop him. "Neither I nor any of my friends or allies will oppose you as long as the Ancestor is still out there. Secondly my advice would be to stay in your house behind the bounded field. Call sick to school if you have to. Dead Apostles Ancestors would be about the equivalent of servants. If you meet him again he will kill you. Third and lastly take this," Shirou said and placed a phone down on the table. "If you are in any trouble press 1 and tell me your location and I will proceed there with all haste."

Throughout his speech Rin's expression had continuously shifted. At the sound of a truce it brightened, at the mention of his allies it had shifted into concern, when he advised her not to go to school it showed a deep reluctance and finally when he had given her the phone she had shown simple distaste.

"Really," Shirou said with amusement. "You're one of those Magi that don't know how to use modern technology." He shook his head. "My servant is over two thousand years old and she is already using the internet Rin. Keep up with the times."

"Do you really believe that I will have to stop attending school," Rin said far more disinclined about the situation then Shirou would believe.

"Rin, you're in a war. You can die. Use the time to better rest and plan your moves," Shirou said shaking his head. "I'll scout out the rest of the competition and get back to you on the current status of the war by tomorrow night at the latest."

Rin nodded and picked up the phone and Shirou stood up to leave, but before he could take one step he was once again stopped by Rin's voice.

"Shirou," she said with determination laced into her voice. "You have said to me many times throughout our school life that you were a magician. Now I want to ask you one last time. She regarded him, her face dead serious. "Are you a magician?"

Shirou halted in his steps. Slowly he turned around regarding her classmate who was regarding him with fire in her eyes. He then put a hand on the table and broke a piece off before putting it in his mouth and chewing. He regarded Rin's utterly baffled look with a blank face while Saber stood to the side just staring at his behaviour.

Finished chewing he wiped his mouth and said, "Why don't you work it out Rin?" Then he snapped his fingers and mist once more mist descended on him and faded revealing empty space.

Rin still with wide eyes placed her hands on the table and feeling the now changed texture she repeated the process. Placing the piece of table in her mouth she started chewing. After a brief instant she groaned. "He just turned my table into chocolate," she said silently revaluating her prior disbelief of Shirou not being a Magician. Exasperated she let herself fall forward onto the table, only for it to crumble and her to fall onto the floor among the broken shards of chocolate table.

"Please kill me now," she said to her servant who had immediately leapt to help her up.

xxx

Shirou had teleported a block away and looked around for onlookers before he lost it laughing out into the night sky. He had been working on that the entire time he was answering Rin's questions, slowly changing the concept of the table to [texture of chocolate],[tastes like chocolate] and [nutritional value of chocolate]. He wished that he could have stuck around longer just to see Rin's face but he had a dramatic exit to stage and a serious job to do. Wiping tears from his eyes he swiftly composed himself. He had a lot of research to do and he needed to confirm his worst fears had taken place.

"[Poseidon's eye]," he uttered taking a chunk of prana and dispersing it around the city trying to pick up on anything that contained the slightest trace of mystery or prana. To his shock the nearest response was quite close.

"Damn somebody managed to sneak up on me," Shirou said out loud to himself.

"By your tone that doesn't sound like a common occurrence Inke," the woman stepped from the shadows brining an involuntary smile to his face. "I'll be happy to make your first mistake your last."

"Lorelei Barthomeloi, so you've found me and from the tingling in my hand you must also be a master. Is your servant going to introduce yourself or simply remain immaterial?"

The woman drew her rapier and held it in a position of easy access. "You may reveal yourself," she said and a moment later the figure of a tall man wearing the most unusual clothes materialised. It looked like a professional wrestling outfit complete with a red cape and everything.

"Greetings child," the swarthy man stated. "My Master wishes to fight you and I have no particular desire to clash blades so if you could direct me to your servant I shall do battle with them."

"I'm afraid she's somewhere about here I don't really keep track of her," Shirou replied semi-honestly. He could tell she was watching the whole scene from the top of a building three blocks away.

"Ahh, that's no matter then. As long as she doesn't interfere with my Master's fight I shall merely stand and watch," the man said.

Shirou nodded at that and then turned to regard the Vice-Director of the Clock Tower. If it was anybody else he would have asked them for truce. But he didn't think that would work with her. Nor did he really want it to. His blood was boiling for a fight between them but still he had to be sensible about this.

"There's a series of empty warehouses about three kilometres north of here. The citizens of Fuyuki sleep like the dead but even they will wake up if homes start collapsing," he said and immediately took off.

His pace was matched by the head of the Barthomeloi family who trailed behind him by a few steps and in less than a minute they were there. Shirou turned on his heel upon reaching the area and immediately launched a volley of icicles that travelled at bullet like speeds. In most cases this would be seen as a dirty move attacking before the fight was officially declared but at this point neither he nor his opponent cared. The volley of icicles was parried by her sword destroying all of them and she immediately followed up by sending three blades of wind at Shirou that would have torn a human in two but was merely a test for her young opponent.

Shirou saw the test for what it was and simply covered his hand in water and shattered the blade of winds with his bare hands. He then clapped his hands and a wave of toxic fog appeared rolling forward to devour his opponent. Lorelei spoke a word and gale force winds were summoned that instantly dispersed the fog revealing the empty location. She whirled in time to block three jets of water travelling faster than the speed of sound still only using her rapier.

She merely said another word and Shirou found himself in a vacuum and battling to breathe. This was swiftly negated by summoning water from inside his body and breathing in the oxygen contained inside that water. For a moment both he and Lorelei looked at each other silently regarding each other.

Then they both attacked Lorelei summoning a hurricane that tore up the surrounding area and launched at Shirou and Shirou countering with a tidal wave. The hurricane met the tidal wave in a humongous clash sending water and debris everywhere and Shirou had to back track to avoid the blade of Lorelei who had closed the distance in that brief instant. He countered her forward momentum by freezing the water in the ground creating a patch of ice. Lorelei twirled her sword gathering small pieces of debris from the ground and flung it forward t such velocity that it created large cracks in the wall of ice that Shirou had summoned less than a second ago.

Shirou struck the wall of ice sending large chunks of ice flying at the magus and he immediately teleported behind her and fired three bullets from his gun at her back. In response she did a half turn slicing the bullets in half with her sabre while simultaneously blowing all the ice away with a single breath. In the next Shirou was beset by a crushing pressure as the weight of the air upon his body multiplied and he felt like he was being heavily compressed. Unfortunately for Lorelei, Shirou had dealt with this kind of pressure before when he swam through the twilight zone and he negated it by increasing his internal pressure.

Shirou responded by sending vast amounts of water at Lorelei and to his surprise her response was to take to the skies and send a devastating wind attack at him that would have reduced him to shreds of flesh. He had responded by sticking Nolava II into the ground and encasing himself in a metal coffin. He teleported out of the coffin and using the same attack he had used a year ago against the dragon summoned some more water and dropped an iceberg on the woman. To his ever increasing astonishment and joy she was able to slice the iceberg in half. With a brief use of his Magic Nolava II was teleported to his hand he swung downwards at the Queen of Clocktower and was blocked by her. He forced her blade downwards driving her into the ground with his superior elevation.

Suddenly an explosion occurred right next to the feuding couple and they disengaged Lorelei floating downwards until she remained hovering above the water and Shirou landing on an iceberg that manifested under his feet. Suddenly Lorelei's servant manifested next to her.

"Did his servant interfere," Lorelei demanded of his servant looking royally pissed.

"She better not have," Shirou muttered under his breath. "He was enjoying the fight the fact that both him and his opponent were steadily escalating immensely. He did not know how they did it in ancient Mesopotamia but you just did not mess with another person's duel like that.

"No, I don't believe so," the servant replied. "His servant was calmly watching the fight until you were attacked. She then intercepted the arrow. No this fight was stopped by somebody else."

Shirou with a brief expenditure of prana extended his senses and located the interlopers. Turning to them he was amused to note that he was copied by Lorelei and then the servant.

"It seems we meet again," the voice that rang out was harsh and coarse and very distinctive. From the shadows stepped Rizo-Waal Strout followed by Achilles and a white haired tanned man that Shirou did not recognize.

"Black Knight Strout," Lorelei spat out beside him. "What is your kind doing taking part in the Holy Grail War?" Her sabre had risen again and there was an almost mad look upon her face.

"The Queen," the Dead Apostle Ancestor mused to himself. "Probably the same as you, there is something to be obtained."

"I think it may even be worse than that Lorelei," Shirou said. "What did you say the class of your servant was?"

"I didn't," she said. "My servant's class is Lancer though I fail to see how it is relevant now."

Shirou sighed. His worst fears had suddenly become realised. "It's relevant because that man over there is also Lancer. I'm afraid to inform you that somehow the reserve system of the grail has been activated. There are fourteen servants in this war."

"How did you have that knowledge?" the Dead Apostle Ancestor asked his simple question sounding like a demand.

The demand was promptly ignored by Shirou who continued. "That is not the worst part of it by far," he continued gravely. "A requirement for the reserve system to activate is that all the Master and Servant pairs have allied together rather than pursue the grail as individuals. Only then will the grail issue additional command seals."

Lorelei had no response but to tighten her grip upon her sabre but a brief glance towards Shirou contained her thoughts. If this is what was actually happening then they would be allies throughout the duration of the Grail War. Shirou nodded back at his former adversary and prepared for battle.

 **Author Note: This chapter was originally going to be twice the length but I decided to quite literally cut it in half. You'll get the other half in the next few days.**

 **adislt The pace might be a bit slower but this arc is going to be longer so it naturally slows down as there are a lot of characters. One thing that I will never do is to rehash canon. It would be both a waste of your time and mine. Fate/stay night still holds up as a remarkable piece of literature and if you ever have a hankering for that version of Shirou I would definitely recommend a reread.**

 **Archleone I make it a point to deliberately avoid criticizing other peoples work in my responses as I believe it would make it seem like I need to put people down to elevate my own stories. I will say that I did enjoy the earlier chapters of Fate's Gamble and I believe it should be respected as a perfect example. An example of what I'll leave to your imagination. That said despite my dislike and bafflement of some kinds of stories e.g. some of the fucking weird Harry Potter pairings and some authors penchant to insert an OC named Naruto into every single situation. The only stories that I will condemn without mercy is those that don't break away from canon.**

 **Bit of a rant there. No multiversal shenanigans. When this story ends I will move onto the next one. Lastly no Shirou will not develop a reality Marble.**

 **Archleone,Tobias97, Albertrojas Satsuki basically did something incredibly high risk. She had access to the Matou books on the original command seals so she took advantage of a loophole. The catalyst was her wish for the "best" servant for her not the most compatible. The holy grail then tried to interpret it searching through the throne of heroes and found it but the catalyst was too weak. She then used the command seal to strengthen her connection with the servant and summon him. Her second command seal was to write her story. This is possibly the single best use of a command seal.**

 **For the record the "best" servant for Shirou would have been Cu Chulainn. But I doubt even the Grail would be stupid enough to give one of the deadliest conceptual weapons ever to the Magician of concepts**


	31. The Beast of them

Shirou clicked his fingers and a wave of water rushed towards his red cloaked adversary that had engaged him specifically. The man expertly dodged to the side as the wave froze everything it touched in its path. A pair of those white and black swords rushed towards him. He had found out the hard way that that those pair attracted naturally attracted each other when he had been struck in the back by one of them. The strike of the sword caused a long scratch that healed in less than ten seconds thanks to Nolava II but it did teach him to maintain awareness.

Lorelei had already taken Achilles and due to his quick muttering of his nature had quickly honed onto the heel of the great hero. Countless blades of wind converged on the fighter as Lorelei used strange vectors and quick spells to hold against the physically superior servant.

As for Lorelei's servant he had taken on the ancestor. Shirou quite frankly had lost track of his battle after he pulled out a fucking tree and attacked him. So he decided to leave him with the belief that he's probably fine.

Swords suddenly appeared overhead and he darted backwards in response avoiding them. Unfortunately while [Ryuujin's Perfect Body] gave him great resistance from blunt attacks due to the inherent density of his blood and other body fluids, it's effectiveness against sharp sources was reduced. Not eliminated by any means but it meant that these swords would make him bleed if they cut him. Turning to face the servant he spat at him aiming for the centre of his chest. The powerful bullet of water was deflected causing his sword to crack but they immediately dissipated and reformed in front of him.

The servant rushed forward leaping over Shirou's wave and deflecting the water jumps that made to drill holes through him while in mid-air. Sprinting towards Shirou he leapt to the side to avoid the explosive rune that was laid down by Shirou mid-fight using his boots. Entering Shirou's range he found himself engulfed in acidic steam enough to reduce a human to bones in an instant but the red-cloaked man powered through only to be forced to retreat once again by a mass of metal spikes that pierced the ground at his location. He jumped back and fired sword after sword at Shirou who deflected them all with jets of water. He summoned a bow and a spiral shaped sword but Shirou didn't let him fire it summoning all the water around him, freezing it and launching the iceberg at the servant all in less than two seconds.

There was a massive explosion and the two men stared at each other for a moment. Shirou took that moment to slot a new cartridge in his desert eagle and eye the servant in front of him. By this point he had got the measure of him. He was either Saber or Archer, although Shirou would place good money on Saber and he fought by the use of projections. He also had quite good magic resistance and a lot of mana. The majority of the swords that he used were weak and could be easily deflected but whenever he pulled out a unique one it should be immediately destroyed. In addition his survival instincts were surprisingly good. Shirou had made multiple deadly attacks and each attack had led to the man avoiding it by the narrowest of margins.

Annoyed at the stalemate that had continued for the past five minutes Shirou resolved to finish it within the next bout. Sending a mental message to his servant to strike when the time was ready he stepped forward and started advancing towards the servant. Once again two blades were flung at him and he used icicles that materialised to pin them to the ground. He drew his sword Nolava II showing his intention to join in a swordfight as he strode towards the servant. The servant responded in kind that pair of black and white swords once more appearing in his hands as he darted towards the Magician.

At the last possible moment before the clash Shirou dropped his sword letting the blade sink a foot into the ground. Bringing up his hand he looked at the momentarily surprised form of the swordsman before he incanted his ultimate spell.

"[Amessunu Istenis]," he said and thrust his hand directly at his opponent.

The white haired man had stopped advancing as soon as Shirou had started casting the spell quickly raising his hand and causing a seven petalled shield to appear in front of him. The shield showed it's exceptional ability when only the first petal broke upon receiving the initial pressure of the attack.

Shirou had however trained and studied over the years since he first created his ultimate ability. Initially the attack was omnidirectional and enough to kill all humans in the area as they were crushed by the sudden pressure. By the time he had confronted the demon he had learned to aim it and compress and direct the area of effect. After he had fought the dragon last year he believed he had fully understood and mastered the attack.

He was proven wrong just six months ago by an amused Gilgamesh. The spell did more than mimic the pressure at the ocean floor. It was conceptual in nature as no amount of water that Shirou could summon would ever do that. Water was incredibly bad at being compressed and once he figured that out he was able to properly understand the true nature of [Amessunu Istenis]. The spell did not turn the air into water; it merely summoned the Abyss to crush Shirou's opponents. Materialising the hell that was at the bottom of the ocean that the ancestors of humans had left behind eons ago and had subsequently lost the ability to resist or survive it.

Shirou reached out with his hand and crushed the six petals that lay before him like glass. He then summoned the abyss and used it to kill the white haired man before him. The invisible waves distorted the air causing the entire world like it was convulsing in an attempt to rid itself of the red cloaked man obscuring him from vision.

Shirou watched intensely to see the resulting damage from the attack. The mist from the water droplets faded and Shirou's jaw dropped. The man stood there in his fucking red trenchcoat bleeding intensely and his left arm was mangled but otherwise still standing. In his one remaining good arm he clutched a staff that resembled a snake. Shirou ignoring everything else analysed the sword breaking down all the knowledge contained within and devouring its concepts.

"The fucking staff of Moses," he exclaimed clenching his fists. "Why do you have the gods be damned staff of Moses?"

"It's part of the job unfortunately," the man said and there was the barest hint of bitterness in his tone. He adopted a fighting stance holding the staff in front of him and Shirou did the same pulling the water around him in a state of readiness.

Suddenly the spot where the white-haired man was standing exploded. The man flew backwards his other arm a pulped mess from trying to block the sudden beam of light that was fired at him from the direction of Shirou's servant. The staff had disintegrated but Shirou had no illusions that was the last of it he would see. Immediately turning intangible he disappeared swiftly from the battlefield. Shirou then turned and waved in the direction of Rider giving her a wave of acknowledgement then he headed to properly make use of their numerical advantage.

Running his eyes over the battle he quickly came to the conclusion that Lorelei's servant was winning against Strout his tree seeming to held up well against the cursed sword of Strout, while Lorelei was losing if marginally against Achilles due to her inability to harm the hero. Stepping forward her swiftly reloaded his Desert Eagle and took multiple shots at his ankle causing him to abandon his defence and dodge backwards disengaging.

Shirou followed up that attack by bombarding the area that the servant was in with multiple jets of water cutting off his mobility. The hero charged at Shirou with unbelievable speed nearly reaching him in under a second when he was suddenly forced to jump over another blade of wind that was aimed at his ankles. Shirou took advantage of the fact that he couldn't move and bombarded him with multiple attacks. Poisonous acidic mist covered his location and he fired multiple bullets and icicles at speed far surpassing the speed of sound at the location of Achilles; the fog doing nothing to mask the location of the hero from the water Magician.

When the fog cleared Shirou and Lorelei both stared at the servant. Achilles was still standing his armour and clothes mostly intact but there was a gash on the side of his head that leaked blood into his eye. The servant smiled a toothy grin and then looked at Shirou.

"You…" he began to say and then was silenced as his body was launched back at a speed due to the impact of another beam of light against his chest. He coughed blood and his chest looked like it was partially caved in but stood back up again readying his spear. Shirou blinked impressed once again at his servants shooting ability. He might have to actually start paying her if she keeps on being so useful.

"It's time to retreat," Strout said as he suddenly arrived at Achille's side. Despite all the fighting done the man looked immaculate. Lorelei's servant suddenly approached as well.

"Apologies Master," he spoke. "While I wounded him multiple times, he swiftly recovered."

Lorelei merely nodded at him and turned back to look at the retreating ancestor. "Face your death with dignity abomination," she said. "You're not leaving here alive today."

"I'm going to have to disagree," the vampire said. Pulling out a strange device that looked like a detonator complete with a red button and all he pressed the button on top of it; Achilles defending him from the sudden blasts of wind and water that accompanied the reveal of the device.

Nothing happened for a few seconds and the trio backed off prepared for whatever the device activated and remained in a state of readiness letting the vampire leave. After a moment Lorelei's servant spoke. "Master I should inform you that the device when activated produced a high frequency noise. I didn't believe you would hear it."

"I noticed it," his master replied to him still scanning the surrounding area. "It sounded like a dog whistle."

Shirou and Lorelei froze; both seemed to come to the realisation at the same time. Their faces were stricken with shock and they backed off even further looking wildly around. It was Shirou who first saw it and the sight immediately stole all breath from his lungs. The thing approached swiftly as if it was simply a mass of moving muscle. It stood thirty feet tall but was graceful in its advance and gave out the singular feel of potent dread. As the humongous white wolf bore down on them Shirou was shocked to realise that even the thrumming sense of power in his blood that he usually experienced before a battle was silenced in the face of that monstrosity.

"This is no longer a battle we can win," he heard Lorelei say from beside him and he was unsurprised to note that her voice contained poorly hidden pure primal fear. "Lancer, stall it; use everything."

The buff Lancer materialised in front of the pair and he immediately thrust his tree-spear into the ground. "Magna Voluisse Magnum," he yelled out and then an enormous amount of power was released. The charging beast was lifted off the ground by the sudden appearance of an enormous tree that sprouted from the sidewalk and carried the beast to the heavens. Countless branches sprouted and attempted to pierce the hide of the creature, as the beast was pounded on all sides by branches as thick as whole trees.

But still it was not enough. The beast descended down the tree as if a salmon swimming down the tide of a river smashing the nearly infinite branches as it descended with astonishing amounts of grace for what was essentially a nine metre beast of destruction. The growth matched the beast's descent for a few moments before the beast suddenly roared and the surrounding greenery was obliterated. Shirou felt his eardrums burst before they were replaced by metal mesh.

The monster landed on the ground and was immediately at the centre of an enormous eruption. Countless beams of light impacted against the spot in a barrage that would have reduced any normal creature to atoms. Suddenly ripples shot outward from the smoke and the upper half of the skyscraper that Rider was on disintegrated.

The smoke that engulfed the beast cleared revealing a crater with the centre of the crater containing a pillar of stone on which stood the unscathed Primate Murder. The creature shook himself of the dust and debris that covered him from the various attempts to hurt him. And then the beast turned and glared at them. It was such a human act and the amount of hatred surprised Shirou.

Shirou met his eyes and started analysing the creature digging deep into its concepts and nature. The beast seemed to notice his analysis and it bent it's legs and in the next instant it flew towards Shirou. Branches started sprouting again in an omnidirectional attack that worked well before. It didn't work as well the second time. Every single branch started to rot and smoke before it even came near the White Beast of Gaia, and by the time they reached its hide they disintegrated on contact. Effectively Lorelei's servant's Noble Phantasm was reduced to the power of a spider web.

The servant strode forward. "You are no wolf," he said darkly, his audacity impressing the small amount of Shirou's mind that wasn't focusing on analysing the creature. "Whatever kind of abomination you are you will pay for emulating the visage of a wolf while hunting down mankind."

The servant suddenly charged at unbelievable speed swinging his tree spear towards the White Wolf. The ground cratered as the spear was dodged by the nimble wolf its massive size belying it's terrifying speed. Again the servant swung the sword at the wolf moving at impossible speeds and again the wolf dodged it.

"It's playing with him," he heard Lorelei exclaim in incredulity; whether it was due to the ultimate killer of mankind having a playful side or its dominance over the heroic spirit he couldn't tell.

"He can't kill it," Shirou said to himself having finished analysing the absurd monster. "It is utterly impossible for him to kill it," he said trying to figure out a way to put down the monster.

Suddenly the creature reared back clutching its right eye with its paws in a surprisingly humanlike fashion. For the first time in the entire fight the creature growled, a deep rolling thunder that caressed the intestines in a wholly threatening manner and was able to overcome the sheer terror of its roar by a large margin. It's muscles bulged and it slammed it's front paws into the ground causing a shockwave of air that pushed Shirou and Lorelei back a dozen feet.

Stabilising himself Shirou was able to witness the rapidly healing hole in the beast's eye before Primate Murder was upon Lancer and with one snap of his jaws had reduced him to a state of nothingness.

Then Shirou was rushing forward even as the beast with murder in its eyes charged him down. He stretched out his hand towards the stunned figure of the vice-director grasping her as his magic flared and the both of them faded into non-existence mere moments before the jaws of the Beast closed down around them.

 **Author Note: The other half of the long chapter I had originally envisioned and a fitting place to say, "This is the end of the prologue." I'm probably going to take a bit of a break but I will likely be back soon. If I don't ever come back, I'm dead.**

 **Celestial Brush Don't think it's limited to females. Sumire is actually out of the house by the way. She wouldn't hate Arcueid. Both of them regularly kill Dead Apostles.**

 **Holywhat Did you mean my fic cannot get worse? :P JK. Shirou's luck is B+ but that doesn't mean everything is going to go his way. The + mainly kicks in when he's specifically looking for trouble.**

 **DPSS I never said he was an archer. I also never specifically said that he wants to kill Shirou. Not weighing in on the Shiki v Shirou thing.**

 **silverbringer1 Yes it is Ishtar. No it isn't Gilgamesh.**


	32. The Berserk Dragoness

Arcueid walked through the dark streets at night side by side with her friend Satsuki. At their sode their servant's stayed incorporeal and silently observed the surroundings, or in the case of Anderson wrote steadily in his book.

"Do you have any clue what this is all about," Satsuki said to Arcueid. "I was hoping to get started on scouting out the masters of this war. Not to mention Shirou's going to get upset if his duel with Gilgamesh is delayed."

Arcueid walked in silence for a few moments, "Actually Shirou looked nervous," she said finally. "Whatever's going on has him quite worried."

Satsuki's head whipped towards the True Ancestor. Shirou could be quite combative and for him to be worried instead of excited about an upcoming fight said a lot about the magnitude of the coming danger.

A murder of crows burst from the trees harsh cries disturbing the quiet of the street, their forms momentarily blocking out the light of the waxing moon. Shiki materialised briefly scanning the the street and then became intangible again.

"Merem was right," Arcueid remarked. "The streets do really not feel safe."

"So your friend Merem, the one who killed the priest, is the moderator of this war," Satsuki mused to herself. "Don't they have to be impartial? I hardly think that him committing answering all your questions is the definition of impartiality."

"Merem does what he wants," Arcueid said. "He killed a priest to attend this war; I'm quite honestly surprised that he didn't participate himself."

"He tried but the grail wouldn't accept him," a voice rang out through the darkness a moment before its owner, an elderly priest, followed it.

"You should be careful around these parts ," Arcueid said to the newcomer. "I've heard there were people going around killing religious figures."

The priest coughed into the sleeve of his robe and after a moment straightened up with an amused closed mouth smile upon his face. "I'm afraid I'm currently contracted with the supposed priest-killer. I'll try and keep him on the straight and narrow from now on. Please follow me to the church. It is just around the corner."

Arcueid just stared at him taking his measure for the moment before nodding and following him. They quickly came to the church gates that the man unlocked and let them in. Stepping into the church they were presented with the sight of Merem sitting on a chair in the front with a bunch of forms that he was filling in with his one arm. He raised his head focusing on the approaching duo that came in and a smile came over his features.

"Lovely, you're here Princess," he said. "And you've brought a friend." He frowned in contemplation for a moment. "I never expected for this Shirou of yours to look so feminine though."

"This isn't Shirou, Merem," Arcueid said defensively. "He has red hair and he's very masculine."

"Ohh," said Merem smirking his eyes alight. "Do I detect a hint of ardour for this man? Do you two regularly act in the service of Venus?"

"Well not really," Arcueid said absentmindedly. "I think she watches sometimes but she doesn't really interfere. I'm not really sure Shirou would really be that happy with indulging in a ménage a trois."

Merem just stared at the True Ancestor for a moment before clearing his throat and putting the forms to the side. "All right," he said. "So whom do I have the pleasure of meeting," he said to the brown-haired girl who was watching them engage in conversation."

"My name is Satsuki Yumizuka," she said. "I… was Sumire's apprentice," she continued with no trace of the former bitterness in her voice. "I recently graduated."

Merem blinked before he suddenly scrutinized Satsuki more closely, "Sumire the Water Demon," he said with some incredulity in his voice. "Wow I haven't heard that name in a while. I thought she was wallowing the last few centuries, to think she had taken another apprentice."

"Wait she had another apprentice before me," Satsuki asked shocked by the new information.

"Yeah," Merem said with just a hint of melancholy. "Poor fool ran afoul of the Eclipse Princess." He suddenly smiled in that childish way. "The Water Demon apparently went on a rampage and beat the fake Brunestud half to death before she was driven off by the Beast of Gaia."

Merem coughed into his one remaining hand. "It's no use dwelling on pleasant memories. The reason why this version of the Holy Grail War is so much more dangerous than the others is that it is not the only ritual going on at the moment. Tell me Princess what do you know of the Dark Six?"

"The second Dead Apostle Ancestor. Apparently a greater threat to humanity than Crimson Moon," Arcueid answered immediately. "It was to be summoned in Aylesbury wasn't it?" She asked and her look conveyed to Merem that he better explain now or else feel her wrath.

Merem sighed, "Yes all of that was true and about as much as anyone not involved in the ritual knows. But it is outdated as one year ago church sources came to the conclusion that the ritual was being dispersed, or to be more accurate reallocated."

Satsuki gulped, "You think it's taking place in Fuyuki don't you," she said and then with a deep breath she calmed herself and stared Merem down. "Who was taking part in this ritual," she said. "And what specifically does it have to do with the Holy Grail."

"The Holy Grail itself," Merem started. "Nothing, it has to do entirely with the grail system. While the site in Aylesbury had a strong leyline there was no infrastructure that the Apostles could use that would allow them to gather and store the huge amount of mana necessary in order to actualize the ritual. The Fuyuki Grail War however allows for the souls of defeated servants to be stored in special containers called Lesser Grails before they are deposited into the Greater Grail."

"We know how the System works Merem," Arcueid interrupted. "Shirou has explained it before and I understood it then. What I want to know is how they could have created a lesser grail and why there are fourteen servants."

"I don't know that," Merem admitted. "I personally believe they somehow summoned their servants using the system a while ago and the Grail noticing that none of them wanted to compete for it allowed Masters to summon servants to oppose them. As for who could have made a lesser grail for them, the Ancestors are full of those who have achieved the pinnacle of magecraft," he said a smile coming over his face.

"Speaking of that," Satsuki asked. "Can you give us any information on those who are taking part?"

Merem deliberated for a bit thinking on the matter. "Yes I can," he said after a moment. "Neither I nor the church would recognize this as a True Grail War as one side does not even seek the grail."

He raised seven fingers in the air leaving the thumbs lowered.

"Trhvmn Ortenrosse," he began lowering a finger. "The White Wing Lord ruler of a huge amount of dead apostles. While I personally don't rank him highly he is also not somebody to be underestimated. Nothing special can be said about him."

"Gransburg Blackmore," he continued lowering another finger. "He's obsessed with birds, can transform into a huge bird and possesses a reality marble that probably has something to do with birds. His minions take the shape of birds and by now almost every avian in the city will probably be linked to him somewhat. He's also exceptional at magecraft, you should not underestimate him."

"Altrouge Brunestud," he said and his voice held a noticeable disdainas he lowered a third finger. "The Eclipse Princess of Black Blood is a failed knockoff of yourself. Unfortunately it is the beast she travels with that presents the real problem. The White Beast of Gaia is an incomparable monster unlike any other living today. As humanities strength has increased it, as the death of humans, has only grown in power unlike other phantasmal beasts that have waned. Quite frankly," Merem Solomon said with a completely serious face. "I can't think of a single way I could defeat it."

"The last one I know of," he said. "Is Rizo-Waal Strout."

"That's the one that Shirou met," Arcueid interrupted.

"Really," Merem said intrigued. "He's Altrouge's bodyguard and he's immensely tough, his time curse reaching levels unheard of among the ancestors. He wields a demonic sword with an unknown effect. So he's strong, hard to kill and can probably inflict some kind of curse on you with his sword."

The two girls remained there digesting the answers for a bit analysing them. "Do you know any of the non-Apostle Masters that we could possibly reach out to for assistance?"

"Yeah," said Merem with an uncharacteristic look upon his face. "I have actually met two other masters. One of them was a terrifying waifish looking girl with blonde hair. I retreated rather than have any contact with her."

Then Merem smiled. "The other one, well do you remember how I was disappointed that I wouldn't see your friend Shirou today. A lot of it was due to the fact that he would be the second Magician I have met so far taking part in this war," he said to the dumbfounded surprise of those surrounding."

xxx

The two women walked down the stairs from Mount Enzou. The red-haired one was frowning. She had planned to examine the grail before the hostilities started but unfortunately the item had not manifested yet and she was not experienced enough in magecraft that she could decipher the incredibly complex system created by three different families. So she was forced to leave the grounds knowing nothing new about the situation. Walking down the street with her petite servant Berserker decided to go and get some shopping done while she was in Japan as she hadn't been back in her hometown for such a long time.

"Where are we going beloved," the pale green haired girl spoke up from behind her.

"We're going shopping at the nearby district of Mount Miyama," she said. "We'll go to a restaurant and do some shopping for the next few nights, and call me Aoko," she finished.

"All right my beloved Aoko tonight I will cook you such amazing food that your heart can't be helped but to be moved."

The red-headed girl turned around and smiled at her servant. "Are you sure you're up for the challenge," she said. "The best food I ever ate was made by my mother."

"I will surpass her, do not worry my cooking will be so great that she will acknowledge me as her daughter," the young woman boasted.

"Might be a bit hard seeing as she's been dead ten years," Aoko said offhandedly not noticing the sudden freezing of the servant behind her.

She was suddenly hugged behind her by the diminutive servant with a force that would have sent most ordinary woman falling down into the floor below. Turning around she was confronted by the teary face of her servant who was staring at her.

"I'm so sorry Master," she began. "I didn't mean to…"

"Relax," Aoko said silencing her servant in the middle of her apology. "It's been ten years. A large portion of my family died in the prior year Grail War but I have got used to it. This may seem unusual for me to say but you can't change the past. All you can do is to keep moving forward and make sure all your days are ones that you don't regret." She smiled at her servant. "So dry your eyes Kiyohime, those tears don't look good on you."

"Beloved," her servant said smiling at her.

"Come let's get some shopping done before it gets too late," the red-haired Magician said taking off towards the market her devoted servant following a bit behind.

xxx

The two of them walked down the street carrying several full bags of groceries. The food was delicious and brought a nostalgic smile to the Aoko's face. She had been out of the country for so long she could barely remember the taste of authentic Japanese foods. Whistling to herself she headed back to the hotel at which they were staying when the sight of yellow caught her eyes. Walking towards it she came across a crime scene surrounded by various onlookers and cordoned off by police. Alert she walked up to the nearest bystander and inquired about the scene his alert shocked her.

"A man drained completely of blood," the servant replied to her explanation. "And you think it is a dead apostle. Are you sure?"

"Unfortunately I am," the master replied. "That is not good. Why would there be a dead apostle outbreak here and now."

"Well it's only one," Kiyohime stated. "Maybe it's just a small infestation and will be killed by the other masters."

"No," Aoko replied. "Dead apostles are like icebergs. If you see a murder due to one it means there are fifty murders you didn't see." She tapped her arm. "Give me a moment." Aoko manoeuvred herself through the crowd until she could obtain a look at the crime scene. She then used the fifth to gaze backwards in time and pick up the trail which lead to a nearby sewer vent.

"They're beneath the city," Aoko said when she returned to her companion. "We'll have to go through the sewers."

"If you say so Master," her servant said wrinkling her nose cutely at the thought.

"Don't worry," Aoko said smiling at her servant. "We can have dinner first."

xxx

They walked in silence throughout the sewers. Aoko was leading the way inspecting every possible shadow for any signs of a dead apostle. Kiyohime was bringing up the rear still slightly sulking that her super-amazing oriental love dish was only awarded an 8/10. Unfortunately despite both of them holding huge amounts of destructive power they had absolutely no way to clear the dead fetid air that they had been experiencing for the past hour.

"Beloved, are you sure, this is the correct way," her servant asked for the tenth time. "Are you sure you don't want to go home and we can take a bath together."

Aoko turned back to respond and then stiffened, "We're close," she said her voice barely more than a whisper. Holding her fingers to her lips and walking silently forward she peaked her head around the next corner and then immediately pulled it back. "Room full of enemies, fire on three," she whispered to her companion. "Are you ready?" At her companion affirmative nod of her head she stepped back bending her right foot slightly. On three she kicked the wall sending rubble and masonry into the next room and her servant breathed flames through the hole causing the interior of the sewers to boil.

Stepping into the remnants of the room Aoko scanned the blackened chamber. The piles of ash on the floor were the only remnants of the dead that had filled the room previously. Ignoring the charred remains Aoko contemplated the situation. Even taking into account the immense power of her servants attack the fact that none of them survived yet there were so many of them told an uncomfortable story.

"The vampire was not among them," she said to her servant. Looking around the room her eyes fell upon a slightly melted statue. She walked up to the mound and examined it jumping backwards as partially melted arm took a swing at her. "An autonomous puppet," she mused to herself having had experience with the like of them before. Her circuits whirled to life and the already damaged rock puppet was torn to pieces its limbs twitching slightly before it finally went still.

"Very well made if it managed to survive the initial attack," she said. "This is at the Touko's level. Puppet makers of this skill are very rare and for one of them to be a dead apostle."

Turning away from the destroyed room she gestured to her servant to follow her. "Something is very wrong with the war," she said to her servant. "Come, we need to talk to that priest again."

As they both left the room they were watched by a puppet with golden eyes that relayed the events to its master.

 **Author Note: Wow there were not a lot of reviews on last chapter. I know this is going to make me sound like a whiny piece of crap but I am genuinely interested in knowing where I went wrong and right. Did PM feel like a truly hopeless boss battle. Was every person acting in character. How was the evolution of Shirou's ultimate attack.**

 **Guest Who said he already hasn't.**

 **The Wolf Paladin Lorelei specifically told him not to mention Rome. Altrouge would hug and cuddle Fou. I specifically took into account the possibility of a divine construct. The wiki states that it was made out of the body of a seamonster. This shares the same origin as Gae bolg which is traceable.**

 **The staff is a B++-ranked construct that raises to A++-rank when weilded by somebody with divinity but it is automatically strong against water.**

 **The stats for Counter Guardian Emiya are as follows.**

 **Class: Saber**

 **Strength B+**

 **Endurance B+**

 **Agility B+**

 **Mana B(A+)**

 **Luck E(A+)**

 **NP E-A++**

 **Skills**

 **Blessings of Alaya: Due to being on the job Emiya's luck and mana are raised to A. In addition when facing off against Shirou his stats will further increase.**

 **Tools from Unlimited Bladeworks: Due to being out of class Emiya can no longer actualize his reality marble into the world. However he now has the mana to utilize all noble phantasms that he draws from his reality marble as well as the memories from his multiple prior jobs and Grail Wars that he participated in.**


	33. Two suns and the morning star

Shirou sat at the table in the dining room besides the newest visitor to his house, the vice director of the Clocktower, Lorelei Barthomeloi. She sipped her tea calmly her posture showing none of the fear and terror that her voice had displayed when she fought Primate Murder. Still her hand trembled almost imperceptibly, a testament to the fact that of the four gathered there she was the only one that qualified as fully human and therefore the most affected by the Beasts' aura. Nine entered the room with two more cups and the vice director barely glanced at him. She had been a bit on edge upon arriving in his house unexpectedly but after she had met Nine and Shirou had shared the story of how he had originally acquired him she seemed to loosen up and even managed to favour him with a smile.

The two of them were currently sitting and waiting for the rest of the group to return. Shirou had earlier offered the use of his workshop to attempt to resummons her servant. While she accepted the offer and then proceeded to do a perfect summon without the use of his guidebook no servant had responded to the offer which confirmed their current theory that all other servant slots were currently full.

Suddenly a disturbance pinged his bounded field and Shirou's focused on it trying to decipher the signature. After a moment he recognized it and with a slight emission of prana lowered the bounded fields. "We're about to have company," he said to the woman next to him. "Don't worry they are both Masters and friends."

Lorelei merely glanced at him before inclining her head in a gesture of acceptance. The next moment Arcueid entered the room swiftly followed by Satsuki. The two girls sat at the table opposite them, visibly eying up the Barthomeloi head and causing the male to female ratio to once again take a dip. "How did it go," Shirou said to the two newcomers. "Find anything out.'

Satsuki relayed what she had heard from Merem with Arcueid adding one or two points as she went. The Magician and the Magus listened intently even though there was an almost imperceptible wince on Shirou's face at the mention of the other red-headed Aozaki. When the full tale had been relayed Shirou sat back in his chair, looking visibly stressed. "That is not good," he said shaking his head. "Assuming the entire side is composed of the DAA then that means we have fourteen combatants of beyond human capabilities." He winced. "In particular those are not the weakest Dead Apostle Ancestors by far and they will have most likely aimed for the strongest servants."

"Achilles is the only one I have met so far that I can identify," he continued. "The other one I had difficulty understanding name and origin. From what I've seen he had the ability to create degraded copies of Noble Phantasm's using an unidentified branch of projection."

"Furthermore, Achilles seems to be invulnerable under certain conditions," Lorelei interjected. "Despite landing blows on him by rapier was unable to penetrate his skin. However both you and your servant were able to wound him. Do you have any clues as to why that was?"

Shirou shrugged his shoulders. "None, but I will try to kill him in the next fight," he said. "I'm not a fan of letting opponents escape and he's done so twice."

"What exactly happened Shirou," Arcueid asked. "And where's your servant."

"Well my servant is…" Shirou paused for a moment. "Here," he said with a note of weariness in his voice due to the thought of the imminent meeting.

"Such a thoughtless man," the musical voice rang out through the room. "Really I grace you with my beauty and you refuse it. I save your life multiple times during the night and you still look at me with those eyes. Oh, why must I always desire the most obstinate men?"

The woman that had entered the room possessed a stunning beauty. She stood at around 1.7 metres but her imposing presence made her feel much taller. Her eyes were bright red and they along with her smile contained an alluring mischief dashed with just a hint of cruelty. Her skin contained the slightest hint of bronze and her hair was jet black with the occasional strand of red that glinted alluringly. Her body was perfectly proportioned with not a hint of wasted fat and yet she couldn't also be called slender. Lastly her breasts were a B-cup that despite being of no spectacular size was emphasised by the way she posed and the scanty outfit that she wore, a mere loincloth combined with a top that only covered the essentials and nothing else but jewellery.

The woman that had entered the room radiated both sex and danger and it was such a potent combination that she somehow managed to get both Satsuki and, to Shirou's surprise Lorelei, to blush.

"I am truly thankful for your help, don't get me wrong," Shirou admitted. "But not a day goes by when I look at your manifestation of beauty skill and am fucking glad I sealed it." He took another sip of his tea. "I fear that if I hadn't we would be having the Holy Grail orgy."

Ishtar pouted and Shirou had to physically restrain himself from comforting her. Arcueid didn't have as much willpower. "Don't worry Rider," she said hugging the Babylonian goddess. "One day we'll make your true feelings reach Shirou."

Rider hugged the last remaining True Ancestor back and then Shirou noticed that her hands were going lower down Arcueid's back.

"Rider," he said seriously in an attempt to break off her line off thought. "What did you think about the Giant Wolf?"

Rider paused in her planned molesting breaking off the hug and letting the True Ancestor get back to her seat. "Very strong," she admitted. "It took a lot of my arrows like they were nothing." She suddenly puffed out her chest. "But I managed to stab out its eye. That creature will know not to mess with my glory." Suddenly she smiled. "And if the mongrel refuses to learn its lesson then I could always show it the power of a True Phantasmal Beast."

"Forbidden," Shirou interjected quickly. "You as good as admitted you cannot control it. There is absolutely no way I'm letting you summon that walking atrocity. Besides I'm about ninety percent sure I don't have the mana to do so, and I refuse to resort to jewelcraft."

"There's no need to be so unpleasant," the goddess stated. "It was just a suggestion, but if it makes you feel so uncomfortable we'll do it your way. You do have a plan correct."

"Indeed," Shirou said. Turning to Lorelei, he confirmed with her. "Your servant was Romulus right?"

"Yes," he was Lorelei confirmed with no remaining trace of bitterness in her voice.

"Then am I right in assuming that tree that he summoned had something to do with the roman civilisation. Some metaphor for the people of Rome."

Lorelei scrutinized him and nodded her head. "Yeah, that's not going to work," Shirou said. "Primate Murder has an advantage against humans. That means any human created or wielded Noble Phantasm will be all but useless against it. Only divine weapons or beings that are not part of the Human Race will be able to affect the creature to any significant amount." Shirou took another sip of his tea. "Romulus for all his power was a human heroic spirit. This allowed him to fight the Beast but not significantly harm it. However someone like Arcueid or my servant would not be disadvantaged at all."

"What about his regeneration?" Lorelei asked. "Do you know a way to overcome that?"

Shirou nodded. "A bounded field," he replied. "To be specific one that has the sole purpose of cutting the Beast off from Gaia." He turned towards Satsuki, "How's your reality marble?" he asked. "Can you manifest it into the world yet?"

Satsuki opened her mouth to state that her reality marble was not able to be manifested when her mouth closed. A sudden bout of confidence seized her and the words that she was going to say were snatched and replaced. "Don't worry," she said with that bout of renewed confidence. "When we face Primate Murder I will be able to seal him off from the world."

Shirou nodded at her trusting in her abilities. "Lastly," he said. "Even taking into account his overwhelming power and speed, the thing that makes the Beast so deadly is his way of actualizing miracles," he turned to see Lorelei nodding along with him. "You noticed it also?" he inquired of her.

"Wishcraft," the vice director said. "It is the domain of Demons which only the Einzberns have ever entered as magi. As long as that Beast has prana there is no limit to the miracles it can enact."

"Yeah," Shirou admitted, "I would like to put off Primate Murder until we consolidate our power. I vote that we go after softer targets first. The Ancestors are not known for their teamwork after all. If we can take out those that are on the fringes then we have a chance to reduce their power before we are forced to take on the White Wolf."

Those around the table nodded in agreement. "I'm going to get some rest, "Arcueid said. "Tomorrow afternoon I'm going to track down the fifth magician since Shiki knew her personally, he can point her out for me."

"Yeah, I'll turn in as well," Satsuki said as she started to head out.

"Wait," Shirou said halting her in her tracks. "Stay with us in the house," he continued. "It is unbelievably deadly out there right now and if you step outside it is likely you will be tracked down and killed by at least one of the ancestors. I can guarantee you that the protections around this house are among the best in the world. Even Brunestud's monster would not be able to gain access to this place." He took a breath. "I will try to track down Rin and the last master tomorrow and move everybody here behind the defences."

Satsuki nodded in assent, but it was a grudging nod to which she did not look happy. Once she left the room Shirou turned towards the last remaining member of the group. "I'm also offering you sanctuary," he said to the expressionless face of Lorelei. "I will even allow you to bring over other members of the Clocktower if necessary. This is not the time to ignore any possible help. But if I even hear of enforcers being sent after that girl for the 'crime' of possessing a Reality Marble I will turn the Clocktower into a sinkhole."

"I will graciously ignore your threats," the brown-haired magus bit back just as forcefully. "But I will remind you that the Clocktower does not assign sealing designations to independent magi." The magus finished off her tea and placed the teacup down where it was immediately picked up by Nine. "While I noticed the girl was not human, the fact that the True Ancestor abides by her indicates that she is not likely to go after humans any time soon. I dislike Reality Marbles because their owners are either monsters or lunatics. As long as she doesn't become either I have no time for a simple magus from the orient."

The woman stood up. "I have my own base that I established upon coming here. While I believe it would be best to maintain friendly relations I will be bringing a large number of specialised apostle hunters that this house is not equipped to handle."

At this the woman nodded to him and left the room with not even a goodbye.

"Wow, somebody needs to get laid," the voice of his servant came from behind him and he felt her hands on his shoulders working the muscles.

"No seduction Ishtar," Shirou called out reluctantly despite current his enjoyment of the massage. "I'm going to take a nap; we'll retrieve the Tohsaka tomorrow."

xxx

 _Ishtar retrieved her crown from the gatekeeper and placed it upon her head. The land around her was paved with black obsidian and the air was heavy and stale around her. Multitudes of terrifying flickered in the shadows that displayed themselves in the corners of her eyes and the lamentations of the dead were echoed pitifully in the great goddess's ears. In front of Ishtar was a young man with golden locks that possessed impressive beauty. Even Ishtar despite the situation felt somewhat jealous at the looks possessed by the boy in front of her. As she continued walking and following the boy a bolt of light displayed itself illuminating the cave and the surface world. Ishtar found herself moving at a greater speed subconsciously. As she stepped out of the mouth of the cave she felt the land beneath her change. From the feeling of death, the land began to reawaken and the air came alive again. The dirges of the dead faded into the distance._

" _Good to see you back in the land of the living Inanna," the masculine voice rang out to the side of Ishtar and she turned around to see a man laying against the rocks._

 _The goddess smiled at the man who gave only a weak smile in response. "Thank you for helping me," she replied to the man._

" _You took the entire authority of fertility down to the underworld Inanna," the man replied looking weary. "You could have ended all life on earth. I thought you told me you weren't going to cause any more catastrophes after the last incident."_

" _Well as long as you're always there to fix things up I'll be okay," the young goddess laughed._

 _The man shook his head. "Look at the bad example you're giving to the young Inanna." He turned towards the golden-haired young man. "Take note of this exhibit child. Women like this will ruin you."_

 _The scene faded to black as Ishtar pouted and the golden haired young man snickered._

xxx

Shirou hopped the closed gate of Homuhara academy with the utmost of stealth. He had technically been committing truancy the past few days and while he had enough money that he didn't need to work he still didn't want to deal with Taiga. She had always insisted that he stay in school and work hard despite his absolute disdain for the Japanese schooling system.

Whistling Shirou walked through the doors placing the concept of concealment lightly around himself causing him not to be noticed by any patrolling teachers. Peeking in the corners as he went he looked to find the classroom that Rin was in. He noticed his command seals tingle indicating the presence of a nearby master and after a bit of extra searching he found herself in the classroom dutifully taking notes while listening to the science lecture of some or other teacher. Shirou had never met him, so he didn't know his name.

Dropping his spell of concealment he boldly strolled into the classroom, all of the heads immediately turning towards him as he did so. As the teacher turned to ask him something Shirou pulled out a device from his pocket quickly that looked like a silver ridged tube. "Can everybody please look at the memory manipulating device," he said.

A flash of white light later and there was a vacant dazed look in the eyes of all the students of the classroom except Rin who was just staring at him in disbelief. "All right," Shirou said. "Continue having your standard school day learning rote facts that will in no way help our fucking awful economy. Rin didn't come to school today; she's had to take the week off due to an overseas appointment. Goodbye everybody. Come on Rin we need to go," he said talking now to his pigtailed associate.

"You just used magecraft," Rin said slowly as if she couldn't believe it.

"And nobody will remember it," Shirou asserted. "But this war has just gotten a lot more dangerous. If we're not careful it could lead to the destruction of Fuyuki."

Rin looked as if she wanted to further ream him out but the thought of both the city she "owned" and the deaths of the people living in it caused her to bite down her retort.

"Fine," she said glaring at Inke. Packing up her bags she slung it over her shoulder and followed the impatient Magician down the hallway.

"Are you sure that device is safe," Rin asked as they both walked down the hallways.

"Yeah it should be safe," Shirou said. "Tested it on mice, then cats, then dogs then a particularly belligerent tiger and then I tried it on people," Shirou said winking at Rin as if he had just told a joke.

"So you just go around performing magecraft and making people forget," Rin said.

"Actually I've only used it on one person so far and that was by her request," Shirou shook his head. He had offered to teach Yukika magic as she had a decent amount of circuits but the quiet girl had politely but firmly refused and requested that Shirou remove her memories as he offered so she didn't accidentally let slip. Shirou was quite impressed with her dedication to normalcy and he had imparted a concept of luck onto the girl as he had wiped her memories. Last thing he had heard was that her family's situation had improved and he felt rather smugly proud of himself for that.

Both of them left the school gates that Shirou opened by jiggling the lock with water. Walking forward he froze.

Rin's servant materialized beside her much to her surprise as he did so. "We're being watched," he said.

"Don't materialize out here," Rin said. "There's no way that they will attack us in the daytime. It would jeopardize the secrecy of the twilight world."

"I'm not so sure," Shirou said as he watched a figure that approached. "He sharpened his eyesight to try and gain any insight into the looks and abilities of the sudden opponent."

Suddenly and without warning the world shifted and Rin and Shirou as well as their servants found themselves standing in a large courtyard under a sunny blue sky facing a humongous temple that stretched to the sky and as far as the eyes could see.

"Teleportation," Rin said amazed at the demonstration of power that seemed to be akin to the second magic.

"Wrong," Shirou corrected her gently. "This is an enemy reality marble. We are fighting inside the opponent's territory."

Rin turned to talk to Shirou and was cut off as the earth shook. Again it shook and both Magus and Magician seemed to come to the same conclusion at once. Shirou stepped forward and Rin dashed backwards. Gawain materialised next to Shirou giving him a nod as he did so. Ishtar appeared the magus, startling her slightly, and drew her bow pointing it at the entrance to the temple.

The temple doors creaked open and through the massive entrance a familiar creature stepped. A human face that sat atop a lion's body that was the size of Primate Murder even if it possessed nowhere close to the potency. In addition the beast was covered with flames and despite the distance between them it was akin to standing in a furnace.

"So," Shirou began. "I think we can safely assume this servant is Egyptian." He scrutinized the flaming Phantasmal Beast that stood at the entrance of the temple. "Think it wants to ask us riddles?"

 **Author Note: Do you know I never know precisely what to say in this short Blurb. I suppose I should just thank people for all the reviews I've gotten and for helping me to improve my story.**

 **Guest Yes it is. I haven't established Shiki (girl shiki) as a character in this story and I really don't want to write her.**

 **Celestial Brush No command seals used on him yet but he is even less free than if they were. Aoko is described as a cheerful, truthful person that follows through on all she undertakes and regrets nothing. She also causes massive destruction wherever she goes. She was the catalyst for summoning Kiyohime. Believe me, they're compatible.**

 **Archleone Yeah, my worry about the grail war was that too much was going to go on and I would lose people. The trick I've found is to do it like you would eat an elephant. One bite at a time. I despise the process of Deus Ex Machina and I prefer to leave hints and foreshadowing about a persons abilities. I will try not to lose you but I can safely say that the story still has a bit of escalation to go before the climax. Both teams are incredibly strong, if this was a standard grail war without those participants the Ancestors would sweep it but now their opponents chances increased to 'not impossible'.**

 **Lastly the servant that she was talking to was Kiyohime. I'm genuinely not sure why you think it's Tamamo but I'm finding it hilariously ironic that the one time I actually straight out mention the servant's name people still don't get the right one. Sorry but you made me smile.**


	34. Gods and Monsters

"Apparently it's not the riddling type," Shirou mused as he dodged the charge of the sphinx cooling the water in the air to offset the heat from the Divine Beast. The beast had immediately lunged at him at the start of the fight. However its lunge had immediately turned into an uncontrollable slide when Shirou had frozen the sidewalk. The resulting fight was nearly embarrassing to watch. The sphinx had a huge amount of power and its mystery would have rendered it invulnerable to all but the strongest of weapons. Its speed was also phenomenal and the heat around it would have killed any normal human instantly and badly burned most servants.

Unfortunately the forces that had arrayed against the creature did not consist of most servants. A multitude of arrows of light penetrated the hide of the beast biting into flesh and bone. Rin's servant strode forward radiant with power, far greater than he had shown in the previous nights and went toe-to-toe with the colossal creature his blade driving deep into the creature's meat. And Shirou fully used his type advantage drenching the flaming beast with water and then freezing the water into ice that dotted the beast's torn skin.

After half-a-minute the once noble and proud beast had been reduced to the state of a beaten street dog. As if in defiance of its certain fate the beast roared, it's one remaining eye glowing golden and charged at the nearest person who happened to be Shirou. Shirou smiled and waved Rider down, he was slightly miffed that despite the five bullets he put in the creature he wasn't able to take out an eye like his servant and he decided to accomplish that by using an ability he had possessed for a while but hadn't properly used in live combat.

Channelling prana to a special part on his heart he felt the world slow down around him, the charging creature now moving at a significantly slower pace. Bending his legs slightly he eyed down the creature and jumped at it. The creature swiped its paw in a vain attempt to repel his attack and he repelled himself of the outstretched limb and over its head. The world almost stopped for an instant and he fired the single bullet down into eye of the beast the fluid-filled organ rupturing as the rune-carved piece of metal gouged into the recent aperture and entered the brain. The world speeding up again Shirou landed on his feet and with a click of his fingers activated the runes carved on the bullet.

Behind him the beast jerked once and then fell its body turning to sand as it did so. Shirou continued walking forward and opened his mouth, most likely to make some witty remark before falling flat on his face.

For a moment everybody was silent. There was a look of abject disbelief on the face of Rin while her servant had a faint smile that he unsuccessfully tried to hide. Ishtar was snickering to herself in an unrestrained manner.

Shirou got up off the ground ignoring the events of the prior second. "Anyway I've narrowed it down to a few possible pharaohs," he said silently cursing the disorientation that came as a drawback from that inherited ability.

"It's Ramses," Rider interrupted him.

"You had to spoil my fun," Shirou said annoyed. "I was going to start at Thutmose III then move on to Hatshepsut and then a few others before I got to the correct one."

"You could still give it another go," Rider said to him with a mocking smile upon her lips.

"No," Shirou said in a huff. "It's obviously Ramses. This is a fucking big Temple and he's the pharaoh known for building monuments. Still this is not good," Shirou mused out loud. "If we go by the classic rule of older=better than he's nipping on your heels Rider.

Rider nodded in consideration and dematerialised her bow. "Shall we enter the lion's den Master," she said smiling.

Shirou loaded his gun while smiling back. "We shall indeed Rider."

"Wait," Rin called. "You're just going to walk in there," she said in shock. "This is a Reality Marble. If we proceed we will be walking into the place where he is strongest."

"Do you know any other way of exiting a Reality Marble," Shirou asked watching the Magus go silent. Silently he recollected that he probably could break out of the Reality Marble if he were to use his trump card or his Magic. He shook his head of those thoughts, this was the opportunity to remove a servant from the board and even the odds placed against them. He could not let this opportunity slide by. Still…

"Rin, you are welcome to retreat," he said. "This is not me be condescending or attempting to place any pressure on you. Rider and I should be enough to handle this servant."

Rin just looked at him seriously before walking past him and into the labyrinth. Shirou sighed and followed her in. The room that they entered was magnificently lit and contained a large empty space that was filled with stone lions. Without pause the lions all turned towards them eying them up. Shirou sighed and shot the nearest one causing it to explode which triggered the flood of them to rush down at the two masters. Flames came from gems that Rin had thrown which caused the stone lions to melt momentarily before the stones literally forced themselves back into position leaving the lions looking good as new.

However bolts of light followed those gems putting them down for good. Shirou inclined his head slightly to take in the image of Ishtar who was firing arrows from her blue and golden bow with seemingly no need to reload. Each shot killed a stone lion and allowed for no possible regeneration. Shirou saw Gawain wade into the sea of stone lions and witnessed how every single one of them was crushed to rubble and subsequently reformed.

Thoroughly intrigued and confused Shirou retreated behind his servant the only person who currently seemed to be harming the lions. Drawing upon the Fourth Magic he analysed the make-up of the lions and was nearly struck dumb at the sight.

A blessing of such magnitude covered the collective mass. It was the concept of immortality or the closest thing that Shirou had ever seen. But Ishtar's arrows pierced and destroyed the concept whenever they struck a beast. Shirou was momentarily perplexed and then he saw it. His mind perceived it as a flicker of gold but he knew it was so much more. Both the blessing and every arrow fired by the Babylonian goddess contained it. Scouring the pure substance for a designation he was immediately assailed by the name. It was divinity, the blood and muscle that moves the arm of authorities. It was by far and away the most powerful concept that Shirou had ever seen. The fact that his brain hadn't broken by merely taking it in he could only attribute to the strength of will and power over his Magic he had obtained. This was very good because right now it was the thing he needed.

Reaching into the core of his body Shirou applied the concept of [DIVINITY] to himself and was so surprised that it stuck that he did not even notice his servants eyes immediately snap towards him as he did so. Shirou gestured with his hand and a rapier of water drilled a hole through the head of an opposing statue lion causing it to crumble to dust. Nodding to himself Shirou went to work.

"Saber," he yelled giving the battle focused servant ample warning so that he did not decapitate the Magician. He teleported behind him and touched him immediately imparting the concept of [DIVINITY] to the battling knight. Looking back at Rin he erred on the side of caution and decided not to apply it. Both servants were beyond human and could survive and he was tough and could remove it if it became too much. But a normal human body may not be able to contain the concept properly.

Raising his hand to tell his classmate to step back he joined the two servants in systematically destroying the entire pride of lions. With all three of them now able to properly harm them the fight became as easy as the previous fight against the sphinx. The statues were tough and would most likely have overwhelmed an ordinary servant or even taken down a team of two servants working together but three very powerful servants were too much for them.

Saber looked like a miniature sun with every sweep of his sword the lions closest to it evaporated and any lion that even managed to get close to him could not do anything to the armour that he wore except be crushed by a well-timed punch or kick. Rider was just as hazardous for them, as she drew back the sting on her bow and fed it prana at such a phenomenal speed that she didn't even seem to be able to move. Shirou made up the difference and he did it with piercing blasts of water or crushing ice with the occasional bullet destroying the statue. Within two minutes the victors stood triumphant amidst a pile of rubble.

Shirou took a deep breath and turned back to talk to the resident jewel mage when he heard clapping resound throughout the empty temple. Turning his eyes forward again he beheld the sight of a young tanned man adorned in gold and shirtless apart from a white cloak draped over his shoulders and standing on a balcony that looked down upon the room.

"Magnificent," the young man said. "You are truly a mighty alliance to besiege my temple so. I had originally elected to wipe out the servants with a single sphinx and bring this war closer to an end, but seeing such strength from you three has moved me to enter the fray myself. I am Ozymandias, the King of Kings," the man spoke his words holding the authority of the ruler. "Now behold the ultimate guardian of this temple of mine you had so foolishly invaded." A large door creaked open and a sphinx bigger than the one they fought before stepped out. However this sphinx did not burn with the fires of the previous sphinx that they had fought but merely resembled a galaxy in the shape of sphinx with a golden headrest and golden wings. Shirou evaluated its power without using the fourth Magic and came to a conclusion.

"You take the servant," he said to Rider. "Saber and I should take the sphinx."

"Are you sure you want to do that," the voice of the pharaoh rang out and this time he sounded slightly concerned. "Your friend doesn't look to well."

Shirou whirled on his heels ignoring the looming beast and turned towards Rin, cursing himself for forgetting to check up on her. She was on the ground being supported by a concerned Rider. Her face was very pale and her breathing was shallow.

"There is a poisonous curse on the temple," the voice of Ozymandias rang out from behind him. "You placed some sort of protection over the other three but not her for some reason." There was a brief pause. "Were you perhaps trying to take her servant?"

Shirou ignored him and deliberately supressed any flashbacks to Akiha or Kiritsugu. He was stronger now and more versatile than the younger version of himself and he had more options with which to save people.

"Trust me," he said to Rin and after a moment he saw her weakly nod. "[Amessunu Istenis]," he said his voice quiet but determined. Saber looked like he wanted to stop him but he was held back by a look from Rin. At its core his trump card had a very anti-human nature as it was based on an environment that humans could not survive. He once again used this nature now as he had used it once before against the shadow version of Narbareck to punch a hole in the reality marble. Pushing his Magic and concentration to the limit he was left panting but in an instant the temple cracked and both Saber and Rin were gone causing Shirou to exhale in relief.

"Interesting," the self-proclaimed King of Kings stated. "To penetrate my Temple and release them. "You could have done this at any time and still you to choose to fight me here. You must be very confident in yourself."

"Once outside the temple she should recover quickly," Shirou said. "That's the trick isn't it all the blessings and curses are only effective inside the temple gates. That's why the sphinx that fought us went down so easily."

"Even outside the temple that Sphinx has the power of three servants," Ozymandias said. "The fact that it was defeated at all simply shows that your group was exceptional but it will not continue for much longer. Ahead of you is my toughest Sphinx, incomparable to the one you fought before. The Sphinx Wehem-Mesut will be your opponent."

"Rider," Shirou said. "If I were to attack Ramses with my water attacks I may cause him to run back to Egypt. You can take Remains .I'll clip the wings of this sphinx."

Ozymandias' persistent smile fell. "Destroy him," he said to the sphinx below. "I'll take the servant you can take the fool."

Shirou immediately drew and fired his pistol three times at the sphinx. He got a split second warning as the bullets didn't impact against the starry body of the sphinx but instead seemed to disappear. Throwing himself forward he was quick enough to dodge two of the bullets that unexpectedly appeared behind him but the third caught him in the shoulder. Shirou had kept his eyes on the sphinx even as he was shot and was thus not caught unawares when then the creature disappeared from its location, warping time and space and appearing in front of him striking down at his form. Shirou rolled out of the way in time, the world once again slowing down as he channelled prana. Standing up and examining the Sphinx he noticed in the back of his mind that the bullet had been broken down by Nolava II that was stored inside him and that there was a huge amount of light and noise going on outside of his peripheral vision from the collision between Ozymandias and Ishtar.

Once again focusing on the sphinx he drew fired another three bullets this time at the wings and head mask of the sphinx. The sphinx didn't move but the bullets entered the starry body anyway and this time Shirou was able to dodge it. Cursing under his breath Shirou channelled water from his body and flung an iceberg at the creature in an attack that would have crushed the defences of anybody hit by the iceberg. However the iceberg began to shrink as it flew towards the sphinx until it was eventually the size of a snowball and was absorbed into the sphinx's body. Shirou didn't move as the massive iceberg appeared above him and merely snapped his fingers casually causing the iceberg to shatter and the resulting mass of water that it left behind to hang in the air, held aloft by his willpower.

He again fired jet after jet of water after the sphinx in every direction but the creature did not move and all of the jets of water were absorbed by the starry cosmos that made up its body and redirected towards Shirou where they fell at his feet. Focusing on the sphinx he tried to evaluate its abilities but he was alarmed as the stars of the creature began to glow brighter multiplying in number and causing the whole of the sphinx's body to glow white. Summoning Nolava II to his hand he stabbed it in the ground causing him to be encased in a metal coffin.

For a brief moment he was left in the dark and silence and then in an instant the coffin became hellishly warm and there was a loud sound that caused Shirou's ears to revolt. He felt the air in the coffin begin to boil and he froze the surrounding area encasing his body in ice to avoid the worst of it. Even still the ice began to melt and Shirou frantically kept cooling it even as the world around him turned white.

After what felt like an eternity the heat abated and Shirou turned the ice into water and took in the scene around him. The floor around him was bubbling it was so hot and the coffin that was made from Nolava II's metal had melted. Focusing again on the sphinx he was disrupted by the cry from Ozymandias from behind.

"Finish him quickly Wehem-Mesut," the voice of the opposing servant called out and Shirou noticed a slight note of alarm in his voice, before his attention was taken entirely up by the sphinx in front of him. All the gold on the sphinx's body disappeared leaving only the outline of the starry skies. Then that outline began to grow overtaking Shirou's vision of the pyramid and even the floor he stood on. The last thing that Shirou heard before he found himself in a desert under starry skies was his servant Rider calling his name.

xxx

Shirou walked aimlessly through the desert, the heavy winds blowing sand against the one hand he used to constantly protect his eyes. His skin grew warm and he was forced to release a bit more of the dregs of water that he had remaining in his body. What was once a lake had dwindled down to a couple of puddles after six days of marching in this barren land. There was no water in the air and he had been forced to use the water that was always stored inside his body to both protect him from the heat of the sun and the nightly attacks. While the desert at day was a hell that he could not escape, and he had tried both teleportation and his Magic would not let him bust out of here, the desert at night had constant roaming sphinxes that seemed to be spawned from the starry skies.

In addition Shirou had not slept for more than a couple of hours since he had entered this hellish landscape. He was dead on his feet and he barely managed to survive the last night by the skin of his teeth. He blacked out on his feet and when he came to he was still walking and the sun was now barely above the horizon.

Stopping his walking for the time being Shirou sat down trying to gather up the feeble remnants of his energy. He sensed eyes on him and he had a feeling that tonight was going to be the last. The beasts usually went about their business at night randomly and he only had to fight one or two if he was caught off guard or was not able to sneak past. This was not the case now. As the light dimmed and the shadows rose Shirou was able to make out shapes in the darkness. He scrambled up to his feet and then fell on his back, his muscles failing him he stared up at the blue sky.

"It's not night," he thought. "It was just my…" And with that partially completed thought Shirou fell into complete unconsciousness.

xxx

 _Shirou was walking down a hallway in which the walls were decorated with unfamiliar writing that he could read. The sound of rushing water echoed throughout the passage and the ground was of stone. Shirou's eyes were trained straight ahead to an unknown goal that he knew he had to accomplish. His skin was chilled and his heart trembled with fear. With every step he took he wished to retreat two. But still he soldiered on even as the air grew sweet and moist and the steady rumblings that he heard in the distance grew louder. Coming to a chamber he stepped through with a mind full of fear but a heart fill of resolve and with his eyes he perceived that in front of him laid a behemoth._

xxx

Red-eyes snapped open in the sockets of the man who lay upon the desert sands. Stretching his limbs out he got to his feet ignoring the procession of sphinx's that eyed him warily. "I'm inside a Reality Marble, inside a Reality Marble," the man mused to himself. "This puts me about as far away from G&A as if I was on the moon," the man said smiling. "You really did me a favour there. If I was just a bit closer to those two I couldn't do this."

The man stepped back and for a brief moment the world was silent, the cavalcade of sphinxes started to edge closer. Than in an instant things changed. From the dry desert sands geysers of water exploded indiscriminately with the force of bombs. Some hit the mass of sphinxes and tore one or two apart but the majority of them merely filled the air with water. Then the ground cracked apart and the cracks formed into trenches that revealed a watery abyss. The Divine beasts had enough, abandoning their caution they charged at the red-haired man. They leapt over the trenches and dodged the jets and with power that did not disgrace their Divine heritage, they closed on their opponent just as he brought his hand down causing the water level to rise and sinking the entire desert into an ocean.

xxx

Ishtar stared in despair at the spot her Master occupied recently. The sphinx had expanded and swallowed him and now it had returned to normal looking as if it ever did. She couldn't even feel her Master feeding prana to her. Her red eyes narrowed in absolute hatred and she turned to use the remnants of her prana to reduce that hated foe to dust and then she paused.

For just a moment she felt her Master's prana surge. Whipping her head back to the sphinx while still keeping an eye on her enemy she was shocked by the sight. The fearsome Divine beast was hacking and spluttering as gallons of water exploded out of its mouth then a jet of water burst from its sides, and then it's back until the majestic Divine Beast looked like a leaking water balloon. In the next instant the creature exploded sending water all over the temple and depositing the form of Shirou who fell to his knees. She looked at him and she could tell by the lethargic look in his brown eyes that he was nowhere near okay. He merely stared at the both of them without any comprehension in his eyes.

"That is something I never thought possible," Ozymandias said from behind the goddess. Turning away grudgingly from her Master, she fixed him with a look of warning.

The Egyptian servant wasn't looking too well. He had wounds over him that clearly indicated his lost fight. While he was strong there was no way he could both activate his Reality Marble and fight a goddess. She drew back her string prepared to end the insolent Pharaoh and was mildly enraged when he held up a hand.

"Your Master may be killed if we continue to fight," he said directly using words that stopped her action dead. "Your master and I are both wounded. I can release my temple and you can fight me another day." Ishtar glared at him and then very deliberately lowered her bow.

She turned around, still keeping an eye upon the servant and she walked to Shirou and picked him up gently. The temple faded away and both servants found themselves on the street again, where they started, thankfully with no onlookers.

The tanned servant turned to walk away but he was stopped by the sound of Ishtar's voice. "Ozymandias," she said. "When we next meet I will beat you to death.

The servant didn't even look back, merely nodding. "I will be ready," he said in reply.

"No you won't be," Ishtar stated to herself, her eyes all but glowing with determination.

 **Author note: This chapter may be a bit rushed but I think I have all the essential bits written out. I had to come up with a powerset for this sphinx and something about his design reminded me of Becquerel from Homestuck. So yeah.**

 **AnimeA55Kicker There is literally no way that the Fuyuki Grail can summon Ishtar under normal circumstances. The wiki literally says that if the grail was powerful enough to summon divine spirits it would render the entire war pointless.**

 **Archleone Literally no idea about the outfit. In FGO Kiyohime refers to Tamamo as her chat room buddy. They are very similar in speech and action so if you didn't read the name or the title of the chapter you can easily mistake them. Thanks for the punctuation advice I should have fixed most of them.**

 **Fathira Yes it was a homage to MIB. Shirou has actually also got a habit of quoting movies. Although I usually keep it subtle.**

 **Guest It is always interesting to see how to develop weaknesses for an omnipotent character. I might as well spell them out though. Her almost omniscience doesn't work on people who are also strongly connected to the root and there is literally no way she can brainwash Satsuki or Anderson because Anderson. But so far two beasts' let's see if I can introduce a third.**


	35. Recovery

Ishtar walked inside the front door of Shirou's residence supporting its owner with one hand holding his arm and the other on his back. He walked slowly and unsteadily as if he was in a waking dream and his eyes were glazed over indicating a total lack of cognizance of his surroundings. She had barely entered the door when she was waylaid by the worried True Ancestor who approached Shirou and started to worry over him.

"Arcueid," she said gritting her teeth and trying to remain polite towards a person she enjoyed under most circumstances. "Unless you know any magic that can heal him. Can you go get the other one in the house? The one with some ability in magecraft."

Arcueid nodded and left so fast that she left the imprints of foot marks on the wooden floor. Ishtar sighed and continued to drag Shirou to his room when he was interrupted by the materialisation of Arcueid's servant. He was fixing her Master with bright blue eyes, his usual bandages having disappeared from his face.

"He's not dying," he said. "I think. His lines of death are fluctuating. Sometimes they multiply to fill the whole body. Sometimes they fade away until none are left. They are continually writhing and moving." The servant shrugged. "I'm afraid I've never seen something like this before so I cannot be sure what the outcome will be."

Ishtar nodded thoughts flitting through her head. "That's… interesting," she said after a brief pause. If what the servant said was true then she had an idea of what had happened.

The silence lengthened into uncomfortability before it was broken with the help of the White Princess who appeared in the room carrying Satsuki bridal style. Placing the bewildered girl down she gestured towards Shirou who was still standing there being held aloft by his servant.

"What happened to him?" Satsuki said after a few moments of chanting some words under her breath. She raised her hand above Shirou's body hovering it over specific spots as if she was using a handheld x-ray.

"He was sucked into the body of a sphinx he was fighting," Ishtar said. "It was only for a moment but when he got out he was practically comatose."

Satsuki paused briefly at the mention of the sphinx, but then dutifully continued her examination. After a few seconds more she put down her hand. "His brain activity is spiking at a higher level than humans should be able to use. I'm genuinely surprised that he hasn't had a seizure yet." She turned towards an empty spot in the room. "Anderson," she said her servant materialising as she spoke. "Please analyse him for me."

"The Master of this household. A Magician who…"

"Don't tell me what I already know," Rider interrupted the Caster's speech her voice cold and imperial. "Tell me why is he in such a state.

"His mind and body are akin to a burst water-skin that has taken too much into itself. He is being slowly stitched together again, but whether the container is identical after being mended is beyond the knowledge of a humble author like myself," the writer said his voice harsh.

"Like I expected," the Babylonian goddess said softly to herself. "He will be okay," she stated to those around her. "I'm just going to put him to bed and help him recover." She turned towards Arcueid and Satsuki. "If you happen to run up against a pharaoh, I would suggest you retreat. Not only is he quite strong he is also already marked for death by me. There is no need to waste your effort on somebody whose days are already numbered."

Both Arcueid and Satsuki nodded to that. Rider usually had an element of mockery around her but now she looked uncharacteristically furious. Even as she gently helped Shirou up the stairs her eyes danced with hidden rage.

"Shouldn't you check on her," Satsuki whispered to the True Ancestor standing next to her. "Aren't you worried that she might do things to Shirou?"

"Not really," the True Ancestor replied. "Shirou doesn't look like up for those kinds of things at the moment."

Satsuki took a moment to digest the words and then her face flushed red. "Not those kinds of things," she spluttered. "I mean get free from Shirou or harm him or something."

"No," Arcueid said smiling. "She wouldn't want to do that. Haven't you noticed her reactions towards him?"

"Shirou said that she was always trying to seduce him," Satsuki said. "And if she's not then she's mocking him about something."

"That's true," Arcueid said nodding to herself. "She's toned it down slightly from when she first was summoned but her behaviour has been fairly consistent." Arcueid stopped speaking for a bit and assumed the face that she always wore when thinking things over. "But she has not been malicious. Every time she teases him it always seems playful and she has never struck me as actively harmful."

"So what you're saying is," Satsuki tried to draw out her conclusion.

"She's in love with him," Arcueid said her eyes almost sparkling. "It's just like in the movies, she fell head over heels and now she can't live without him. Did you see how she carried him all the way back here after he was hurt?" Arcueid was getting excited and her voice rose and her speech grew faster with each sentence. "I absolutely ship the two of them. They're perfect together."

"Ummm," Satsuki paused contemplating her next words. "What about your own relationship with Shirou, wouldn't their 'love' get in the way of that."

"Don't worry Satsuki," Arcueid said. She then proceeded to pick up a dojinshi from a nearby table. "You see I've read about it in this. When there are two girls…"

"Hey didn't Shirou forbid you from those after the May 21 incident," Satsuki interrupted.

Arcueid paused guiltily her hand stopping midway through flipping through the pages. "Don't tell him," she implored of Satsuki. "It wasn't my fault that the dining room wall couldn't handle it."

"Especially since you were in your own room the whole time, right," Satsuki stated with no small amount of sarcasm.

"Please show me these dojinshi," Anderson said to the ditzy vampire. "I have not had the opportunity to investigate modern eastern writing. The owner of this house tends to only stack western materials."

Satsuki just sat down with her hands on her head trying to tune out the innate madness of Hans Christian Anderson being shown a dojin by the last remaining True Ancestor

xxx

She couldn't breathe. The air was like fire and yet her veins were like ice. Her vision had become blurry and her legs had become too weak for her to remain standing. The ceiling of the temple was miles away even as she gazed up at it and all the noise had faded to a buzzing in her ears. The last image that she remembered was of the concerned face of her servant as he looked down at her.

Rin Tohsaka woke up in bed panting her body ached, every muscle felt as if was hollowed out and had molten lead poured down it. She tried to sit up and found herself unable to. Neither her legs nor arms were responding to her commands.

"Easy, easy," the voice of male in English called out. Turning her head to the side she winced as a hot poker was inserted through her neck and down her spine. She couldn't even writhe in agony due the lack of feeling in her legs. Her magic circuits felt miles away and she couldn't focus her thoughts. Suddenly she felt hands on her shoulders and a cooling sensation swept through her body.

She still couldn't see her limbs but now she could think and see without the pain coursing through her body she could take in the face of the man in the room. He was tall with dirty stringy blonde hair and an awkward look. His face was hidden by sunglasses and he was bust scrutinizing her body. Under most circumstances Rin would have blushed or grown angry but now she just was too tired to care.

"What's going on," she said slowly finding herself lacking the energy to even speak long sentences.

"Ahh," the man said rubbing his head. "You were afflicted by a curse from the age of the gods. Fascinating, haven't seen anything of that potency before. It was weakening but it still would have killed you. I temporarily boosted your resistance to magic. Right now all your circuits are focused on rejecting the foreign curse. The paralysis of your limbs was to prevent you from thrashing around. It's not actually as bad as it seems. At this rate you will be curse-free within a week."

"A week," Rin exclaimed. "I don't have a week. I need to be out there tonight."

"Not happening," the man said. "Unless you know somebody that could remove a divine level curse, then you will remain incapacitated. If you attempted to go out in this condition you will die. Do you even have any idea what's going on right now?"

At Rin's blank look the man scowled, once again running his fingers through his hair. Let me get my boss. Just wait here and try not to do anything. The man left the room leaving Rin alone with her thoughts. While normally the thought of having an enemy Magus in her house would be rage-inducing, Rin was a bit beyond caring at this point. She was alive, he hadn't killed her. As long as he stays out of the workshop she will be fine. Still she had to confirm something. "Saber," she said out loud.

"Master," the reply came however Saber did not materialize to speak. "I'm glad to see you're okay. Forgive me for not appearing but I wish to conserve my prana."

"It's okay Saber," Rin said. "What happened at the end of the fight, I can't remember."

"Your friend Inke, tore a hole through the temple and we landed on the street," Gawain began. "Then I tried to take you home but you were still suffering. Luckily I ran into a lady that helped me."

"So is woman the boss my doctor was talking about," Rin mused.

"Indeed I am," a sudden voice came from the door and Rin jerked her head up to see a scarily familiar sight.

With brown hair styled into a ponytail, wearing an immaculate white waistcoat, over brown pants and boots and with a rapier in her hand stood the Vice Director of the Mage Association. Rin's throat went dry. Nobody really wanted to talk to the Queen of the Clock Tower. While she spent a lot of time with Zelretch and he was admittedly stronger than her, he also had far less control over the association and he all but admitted that he really did not want to annoy her. Looking at the woman Rin could understand his point. The head of the Barthomeloi family was about Rin's height and yet her very presence filled the room. By just standing there Rin felt more on edge than she had felt during her entire apprenticeship with Zelretch.

"I had heard that you had been afflicted with a divine curse," the Vice Director opened up the conversation immediately. "Do you have any means of recovering from that?"

"Rin contemplated her vast quantities of jewels and mistake codes and came up empty." Tentatively she shook her head leaving the Barthomelot visibly disappointed. "Have you been briefed on the situation." At Rin's negative answer she began to explain what had been recovered over the past few days leaving Rin's head whirling from the influx of information.

"I will be honest," the woman finished off. "Right now you are useless despite being an apprentice of Kaleidoscope and the master of Saber." Rin more felt than saw her servant's grip tighten on his sword protectively. "The man who helped stabilize you was originally from the Wandering Sea where they still perform experiments on magecraft from the age of the gods and thus possesses far more knowledge on the subject than any person else in the group. I will attempt to meet with the group led by Shirou Inke to find out if they have any way of removing a curse of this magnitude."

Rin blinked. She had expected the Queen to suggest that she give up the command seals to her and sit out of the war. To that end she wasn't sure whether she would have complied with her request or not. While it was a family duty to fight in the grail war, she found herself honestly wishing that the Tohsaka's had never participated in the war. It would probably have left them better off.

At seeing her surprised face the Queen merely quirked an eyebrow at the younger magus. "Trying to take advantage of a sick opponent to replace my servant would shame my family name," she said. "Rest now and try recover so that you can be of some use in the war.

With that last statement the woman turned and left the room leaving Rin alone.

xxx

"Oh no, you're hurt," the young-looking girl that appeared no older than fourteen ran up to her pet dog and embraced him. "You say those mean people damaged your eye," Don't worry," she said hugging the dog and receiving a lick in return. "We'll pay them back. I can't stand people who hurt animals."

The woman and the dog embraced further before they were interrupted by the sound of a cough. "What do you want now, old man," the vampire hissed and her canine companion barked.

"I just thought I should remind you that we were meeting with the rest of the members at the hotel in ten minutes," the white-haired man said. "If we leave now we can make it."

The girl turned and looked directly at the clock. "Damn," she said. "I got distracted by his cuteness again." She picked up a pet sling and draped it over her. "Come on boy," she said. "Get in, we have to go."

The white beast eyed the sling sceptically, but then it suddenly shrunk down it's muscles contracting until eventually it was the size of a puppy and hopped in.

The girl left the rendezvous building and hailed a cab, using her mystic eyes to get out of paying. Finally she made it with a minute to spare and entered the hotel signing her name in the guest register and heading to the penthouse.

Entering the penthouse she was immediately confronted by the sight of multiple Dead Apostle Ancestors. There was her bodyguard Rizo flanked by his servant who he told her was Achilles, whose inability to die didn't translate into an inability to kill people. There was Gransburg who reclined on the couch attended to by his servants, all of them a disgusting mix of human and bird. There was the host Van Fem talking with, ugh Trhvmn, both of them keeping their servants dematerialised. While she personally didn't have anything against Van Fem, the Dark Lord of the Business World hated her for something that Fina had done. Apparently he had stolen a massive golem. It did sound like something that Fina would do. She missed him quite a bit and had spent millions trying to track him down when he went missing but it seemed like he had disappeared off the face of the earth. She didn't want to dwell on unhappy memories.

Although thinking on it Trhvmn was all unhappy memories. She therefore refused to think about him any longer. Still that was only five including her. The last two were friends somewhat; maybe they were going to come together.

The door slammed open and the second to last member entered the room. She instinctively took a step back, facing her warily and she heard her dog let out a low rumble of hatred from the pits of his stomach. Standing there, with a large smile on her face wearing her usual outfit was the one person in the world she hated most. Flanking her was a tall white haired man that wielded an iron rod one-handed.

"The Queen of the Oceans and the King of the Monkeys are in the house," Sumire said a smile upon her face. "RR will be late," she said undermining her entrance. "She said we can start without her."

 **Author Note: No fight's in this chapter. Does not make it easy to write. In fact this chapter took me a lot longer than I thought it would and I'm still not 100% satisfied.**

 **AnimeA55Kicker Do not wish to spoil**

 **Guest Anderson is not unaffected by her but he can easily see through all her manipulations. Satsuki is under the effect of his Noble Phanstasm that turns her life into a story he writes. He would not allow a cheap trick like that to influence her mind. Nope no yandere. List at end.**

 **Archleone The term Divine Constructs is slightly misleading as both Excalibur and Arondlight qualify despite not being made by any god as far as I know. Divine Constructs are items made from things that are beyond human comprehension such as the dreams of Mankind or the authority of a god.**

 **YuukiAsuna-Chan Honestly if somebody just spams their best move over and over at the beginning of a fight it would get boring. I could shorten the fights, but then again I could shorten the exposition or the fluff or I could just write out the epilogue right now. The fights in this chapter were actually over quickly enough except the cosmo sphinx and the cosmos sphinx was as a result of me saying. Okay the previous sphinx =3xservants. Now what can trump that.**

 **Servants are static and unable to lose their sense of self. It's kind of the same reason they can take in souls without losing who they are.**

 **DPSS That is a good question. You would have to specify though?**

 **Altrouge- Emiya**

 **Trhvmn-?**

 **Van Fem-?**

 **Gransburg-?**

 **Sumire- Monkey King?**

 **Rita Rozay-en-?**

 **Rizo-Waal Strout- Achilles**

 **Rin-Gawain**

 **Shirou-Ishtar**

 **Satsuki-Hans Christian Anderson**

 **Arcueid-Shiki**

 **Lorelei-Romulus (Deceased)**

 **Aoko-Kiyohime**


	36. An averted Murder

"So, you're be going out to find the other Magician, Arcueid," Satsuki said to the True Ancestor who was doing stretches in anticipation of any coming showdown. While Satsuki didn't even think it was possible for the True Ancestor to get a cramp, she had to admit that Arcueid had been diligent ever since she 'acquired' boxing as a martial art. While it was amusing to see the vampire get into things such as martial arts and meditation she had taken to them with an awe-inspiring tenacity. Satsuki couldn't gauge any difference between before and after but Sumire had assured the True Ancestor that she was stronger than at the commencement.

"Yeah," Arcueid said flipping from her back onto her feet. "Rider already called the pharaoh and so I don't want to kill him by accident. So I will try avoid him and track down," she fished out a photo from under her shirt, "Aoko Aozaki," she said presenting Satsuki with a picture of the woman in person.

"Shirou's sister right," Satsuki said having heard the tale from Sumire. "How do you think she's going to take it?"

Arcueid just shrugged not wanting to speculate. "If you were a Magician where would you be," Arcueid speculated to herself.

"Being tended to by your beautiful servant upstairs," Satsuki quipped pointing where Shirou had been taken by his servant.

"I don't think that's a very common master-servant relationship," Arcueid said contemplating.

xxx

"Master, I've brought the hot oil. Its massage time," the green-haired young woman said dashing into her master's hotel bedroom dressed in nothing but a low-cut masseuse robe.

"Too bold Kiyo," the red-haired magician yelled out sitting up from her previously reclining position on the bed. "Man I wonder if any of the other masters have this problem," she muttered under her breath.

xxx

"Can't you sense the position of the magician," Satsuki inquired of the True Ancestor.

"No," Arcueid admitted. "I can only sense if there's a large amount of power being thrown around. Shirou is better at this than me and he still was unable to track down the specific locations of the ancestors in a town this big. I'm going to scope the hotels and hypnotize the staff for information on whether she is staying there. If that doesn't work I'm going to patrol."

Satsuki nodded, "I'm going to examine the lesser grail that Sumire and Shirou constructed. I have the notes they used to create it from Shirou, and I need to see whether the soul of the Queen's servant was properly absorbed or not."

Arcueid nodded. "If we could find their storage device we would be able to end the ritual right now." She sighed, "However that is unlikely to happen. They would most likely have it hidden or have Primate Murder guard it."

Suddenly Arcueid's phone rang playing a jaunty little tune from one of the many anime series that she liked to watch. Putting it to her ear Arcueid listened to the voice on the other side for about thirty seconds before she once again tucked it away. "That was Merem," the True Ancestor said. "He managed to get the name of the hotel that the Magician is staying in. I'm going to head there now." And with those last words, Arcueid bid goodbye leaving Satsuki to track down the location of the lesser grail.

xxx

Merem Solomon put back the phone in his pocket. Sighing he picked himself up from the grass in front of the church. "Polite as ever, Gransurg," he said to the man who stood in the shadows at the gate. "Thank you for waiting for my phone call to finish."

"And as usual you do your own thing Solomon," the man said stepping into the light revealing a bird shaped head under a mass of black hair. The half-man, half-bird monstrosity spoke with a hoarse voice. Two blood red eyes fashioned themselves upon Merem's form and clawed hands attached to wings hung idly by his side. "Trying to foil this ritual by stepping in as a mediator of the grail war. Aren't mediators supposed to be impartial?"

"Even the most rule bound of church members will not raise an objection if it is to oppose this ritual Gransurg. So yes while I am the mediator I am also an opponent of this ritual."

"It isn't too late to change sides Solomon," the bird headed Vampire said. "With both of us we can team up and take down the Eclipse princess then it would be simple for us to eliminate the other members of the ritual and take it for ourselves."

"I've chosen my side Gransurg," the Dead Apostle in the shape of a fourteen year old boy said. "This is not something that can be avoided."

In under a second he was off the ground with his left leg missing and held aloft by a flying beast. The creature was in the shape of a manta-ray and its white skin glowed beautifully in the night sky.

"I didn't think it would work out, but you can't blame me for trying," the birdman said a note of regret showing in his hoarse voice. He made a gesture and he was suddenly surrounded by minions each of them a mix of bird and human. "Prevent any from witnessing our fight," he said to them. "Eliminate all who do so." The creatures nodded and vanished into the darkness.

Gransurg leapt into the sky the feathers on his arms spreading to cover his body and in less than a minute his form was replaced by that of a giant crow. He spread his wings and ascended above the city his massive figure blotting out the moon and stars.

"Damn," Merem muttered to himself. "I forgot how big that thing was, this isn't going to be easy." He looked down at the demon that normally stood in for his left leg. The beast was huge at around two hundred metres but even it was dwarfed by the massive bird that circled slowly above him. "Oh well," Merem sighed to himself directing the King of Sky to attack. "It looks like it's going to be one of those nights."

Merem's mount sped upwards at speed far surpassing the speed of sound. Hurricane force winds blew from the wings of the giant crow but the beautiful creature rode the winds slipping through the squalls without even slowing down. A battle for the skies is innately a battle for the upper ground and it was this principal that led to the dance between the two creatures. The massive crow climbed ever higher while lashing out with wings and claws and beak at the smaller creature while the King of Sky danced nimbly around the larger beast avoiding each and every attack.

But a battle couldn't be won by defence alone. A barrage of feathers with the sharpness of blades were fired at the mount and in response the creature fired back glowing balls of light formed into the shape of creatures which swam through the air intercepting the feathers and scoring hits upon the flesh of the crow. The image of the King of Sky shimmered and faded leaving behind the starry curtain of the night. Then the stars started to multiply in the sky joined by balls of light that floated around the crow.

Gransurg swiped his wings intending to blow the balls away from him but it failed to affect them at all. The balls unexpectedly coalesced into four larger orbs and then expanded bubbling up until they were shaped into the otherworldly forms. Each form was of a creature composed of light and had no close analogue on earth.

The first was a blueish jellyfish like creature with an eyestalk, containing a flashing red eye, which grew from the top of its bell. Where the earth creature had stingers however, the ethereal equivalent had multiple bony arms with grasping claws attached to the end. The creature immediately attacked by latching onto the back of the bird and digging into its soft flesh.

The second was a serpentine creature with a set of four magnificent wings. It glowed yellow and was eyeless and had no apparent mouth. It drifted towards the Black Wing Lord and attempted to sluggishly constrict around one of its legs. It was immediately torn into pieces with one swipe of the giant crow's legs and proceeded to explode sending feathers from its wings biting deep into the flesh of its opponent. The pieces that remained formed into more of the creature which continued its march.

The third glowed red and appeared to be some unholy cross between a bull and a dragon. Its back half tapered off into a series of spinal bones that moved like streamers behind it. The beast charged into the breast of the crow causing the creature that was nearly a hundred times its size to physically recoil from the force of the blow. Its horns slammed into the creature and it retreated from the retaliatory strike and charged again into the crow.

The last one shone a bright white. It appeared to be a tree that grew larger and larger a swipe from the massive wing was caught by the creature that then absorbed some of the prana from the bird. Immediately roots and seeds dug into the wing of the creature and burrowed down feeding of the prana contained inside of the bird and causing the tree to expand.

Gransurg immediately tried to dig out the tree identifying it as the largest threat. His prana while massive enough to sustain this form indefinitely wasn't infinite. He backed off dodging the winged blue snakes that advanced on him like a flood slowly boxing him in. Seeing no other way out of the situation he angled his claws upwards and ripped off his whole wing letting the appendage flop down to the ground far below. Pumping additional prana to that area he caused the effects of his time curse to increase pulling him out of the sudden descent but not soon enough to avoid getting a few more hits scored on him by the blue snakes. Relaxing for the barest fraction of a second once he was out of their way he was once more hit by the vermilion bull creature that launched him into a trajectory that almost sent him into the tree again.

Turning around and launching a blow from his claws that knocked back the bull momentarily. He took notice of the one remaining creature that he hadn't focused on. The blue jellyfish still remained on his back and he was feeling a familiar numbing feeling there. Launching feathers from his back he was surprised to see the creature go down so easily. He didn't relax his guard however as the very next instant he was engaged in a fight with the scarlet bull that came after him with a vengeance herding him into the slower creatures.

However despite the creature's toughness he was able to catch it with his other claw when it faltered after a hit and an instant later it was crushed in two by the pressure of its beak. Gransurg ascended to the sky ignoring the poison in his back. He searched for his old friend. Suddenly a pain resounded through his bones that gave him another feeling of familiarity.

"Poison, leeching magic, explosions, and physical damage and now a curse," he thought to himself shaking his head. "I underestimated Merem."

"Moult," the words came out in German from the crow's beak and he expelled a huge amount of prana. The effect was spectacular. All the feathers of the Giant Crow fell off leaving a much smaller version of the crow behind. Despite this loss of mass the bird still was still a kilometre in length and Gransurg swiftly decided not to hold back anymore.

"Midnight Dreary," he intoned and all the feathers that had fallen off were transformed into crows. They darkened the skies in their multitudes and cast a shadow over the waxing moon. "Spread out," he commanded them. "Hunt down Merem.

The birds scattered into the night sky and almost immediately he felt the sensation of minor resistance coming from a certain spot. He flapped his almighty wings causing small tornadoes to shred that area and he was unsurprised to see Merem atop the King of Sky appear a short distance away from him.

"Phew that was close," the member of the burial squad said cheerfully and then his smile disappeared. Looking down at his mount there was a small hole in the membrane of the wings, most likely caused by a crow. Gransurg saw this at the same time and he immediately directed the crows to go after the beast once again. The Divine-class beast dodged the first wave but the second wave saw a few more of the crows manage to penetrate the membrane of the beast and the third tore huge chunks of it. The wings tore more and more until eventually they lost the ability to maintain themselves entirely and with one last look at his foe Merem fell into the darkness of the night below.

Gransurg sighed, or made the closest equivalent a crow could make. He took no pleasure in killing his close friend but it had been a tough fight and twice he had been forced to take off bits of himself to regenerate. Looking down below where the tree and the snake were he realised that they were gone, probably as a result of the King of Sky taking on too much damage. He prepared to descend to check the body when his entire underside was ravaged by metal. Screeching in pain he resisted moulting again, it really used a lot of energy and he didn't have that much to waste, and instead looked at his assailant.

It was a plane that had a boat-like shape with an open cockpit. The body was golden with green wings attached to a golden frame. Its owner sat upon a resplendent throne and next to him on one leg stood Merem. Furthermore its owner did not in any way diminish the majesty of the craft. He sat there in his golden armour with his red eyes inspecting Gransurg.

"I'm afraid that I cannot allow people to go around killing priests in this area," he said a slight smile showing briefly. "We've barely gotten over the sudden death of the last one."

"Who are you," the giant crow asked his hoarse voice loud amongst the silence of the night. "What manner of creature are you."

"You are free to go," the golden man said. "I have no further use for you. Leave this city and I will not pursue."

The crow just stared him down. "I'm afraid I will have to decline your offer," he said. While he wasn't in the best shape right now, he prided himself on his word to much to lie just to escape.

The man sighed as if disappointed. "Truly the King's mercy gets ignored so often nowadays. So be it."

Golden portals glowed around him and weapons were launched at supersonic speeds. Gransurg tried to defend himself sending out crows and feathers to intercept the weapons but all the crows were shredded and the feathers were cut in two by the various swords, axes, spears and other assorted armaments that were approaching him.

The weapons bit deeply into his flesh causing the gigantic bird to wince in pain and attempt to attack the man directly. Using his powerful wings he dove at the flying machine only to be astounded as the machine disappeared at speeds so fast he could barely see. In the very next instant his left wing was sheared straight off his body and he managed to barely catch the glimpse of an enormous sword before it disappeared into motes of light. No longer containing enough energy to regenerate his bird he found himself returning to his human sized form and regaining control over his flight.

Biting back the continuing pain that plagued him, he was forced to use his trump card. "Nevermore," he said forgoing any aria due to lack of time. His world expanded and the stars were blotted out under the constant sound of the wings that he knew were attached to ravens. The shadows around them grew darker absorbing all light. They were even hazardous to his crows as when a few of his winged familiars entered all that exited were bird bones. He was inordinately proud of his Reality Marble that none so far had seen and lived. It was for this reason that what happened next was such a kick in the pants.

"I see so the shadows and the ravens delineate the edge of your personal reality," the golden man said. "The ravens are merely decorative, it is the shadows that swallow a person's existence," he further mused ignoring the surprised look on his opponents face. Reaching backwards into a golden ripple he pulled out something that caused Gransurg to break out in a cold sweat. "I wouldn't normally use this," the golden man said. "But more and more recently it has been a lot more eager to be used. Its power now unleashed can even make me feel a bit of fear," he said smiling ruefully.

The weapon that he drew now had the appearance of a large drill. Three segments spun opposing each other. The servant held it aloft and Gransurg could feel his very reality marble recoil as the entire world warped and wavered as if it was a transient illusion. And then the servant brought it down.

xxx

Miles away on the opposite edge of town a pair of vermillion eyes snapped open before returning to their normal brown shade and Shirou Inke sat up in bed.

 **Author Note: This chapter took me forever to work out how to approach it. I even almost completed a chapter on my other story in the mean time. Now it's done and I'm just posting it. Fun Fact: Blackmore's bird form is described as kilometers big. That is not a number a person can conceive.**

 **EmeraldGirl12 Yup. She basically called him Sun Wukong.**

 **Guest Ruler is Holmes. I mentioned this before.**

 **They're not fighting because they're all adults. Even the ones that look like children. There is nothing preventing them from killing each other. Just goodwill I suppose.**

 **aznxa21 As much as I love everything Gabriel Blessing has ever done. I have no wish to copy him.**

 **The Rupture Hmm I don't know yet.**

 **Lord Jace That is pretty cheap. Probably won't do that.**

 **DPSS He broke the Reality Marble much like Gilgamesh can. If you have any specific questions feel free to PM me and I will reply.**

 **General points mentioned by multiple people**

 **Emiya is there because of the will of Alaya. Alaya does actually want to kill Shirou due to the fact that he is a magician who escaped the notice of the counter force not making them happy. Emiya's secondary objective is to keep an eye on the ritual.**

 **Sumire is an antagonist in this Arc. None of the main characters actually want the grail. Shirou wants to fight Gilgamesh. Satsuki wants to prove herself. Arcueid is doing it for the hell of it. Rin is just doing it out of obligation, she would leap at the chance to do away with the war.**

 **Sumire also has her reasons for participating on the apostle side.**


	37. I reject your reality

Satsuki slipped into the warehouse that housed one of their most crucial pieces in the war followed by her servant who remained silent besides the occasional scratching of his pen. This particular warehouse had been underutilised by the company in the wake of the Fuyuki fire and with Shirou's money they were able to rent the building on a five year contract. The structure consisted of worn out and rusted machinery and was covered in dust with no light sources. To the average visitor the warehouse would appear to be nothing more than another one of its derelict kin but to her it was the entrance to her final destination. Looking briefly around the room her eyes came to rest on a small two by two foot square hole in the ground that was full of water.

The water was dark and foreboding displaying no light in a way that played on mankind's fears of deep water and small spaces. It was also unfortunately the only way to access the location that she needed to go. Shirou and Sumire were the people who originally created the room and neither of them would have had any problem accessing the space unlike her. Fortunately she was not a Dead Apostle any more after the adjustment Shirou performed on her and she even had a slight affinity towards water, which Sumire theorized was due to Shirou performing the operation. Unfortunately even if she could hold her breath for a very long time and swim pretty well it went against whatever human instincts she had left to dive in.

After thirty seconds of mental preparation and a few deep breaths to psych herself up she took the plunge into the surprisingly warm water. As she travelled down the narrow waterway runes of blue lit up the sides providing scarce amounts of light that barely managed to illuminate the tunnel walls that transitioned from concrete to rock as she dove deeper.

After a short while the upcoming space was illuminated by a light that steadily grew brighter and Satsuki knew she was coming to the end of the tunnel. The light grew brighter and brighter until Satsuki stuck one of her hands forward and came up with only air. Pushing forward past the bubble that denoted the end of the waterway she fell down into the floor below gracefully angling her feet beneath her as she did so and ending up in a crouch in a large cave.

The surroundings were beautiful but irrelevant. Even as she walked past the large amount of pools containing clear water formed an aquifer she ignored them and pressed on towards her target. According to Sumire and Shirou the cave was there before and they simply stumbled upon it. At the end of the cave there was a mystic code of huge potential. A storage code that absorbed the souls of heroic spirits gathered them and refined them. Usually this took the form of a segmented pillar however that was not the current form that it took when Satsuki saw it.

The pillar was shattered into multiple pieces that lay cracked and warped on the ground. Gasping Satsuki stumbled forward picking up one of the pieces. There was still prana leaving it at a reasonably fast rate. That indicated that it was not broken too long ago.

The slow sounds of footsteps resounded in the cavern around her and Satsuki found herself jumping back and turning around to face the newcomer. She physically relaxed as her eyes fell upon her visitor. Her former master Sumire was there. She raised her hand to greet her and then froze. Sumire was decked out in a black full body wetsuit unlike her usual attire of a bikini. There was also no reason for her to be here in this cave since she had already declined the grail war. "No," thought Satsuki with a note of rising dread. "She never did say that she wasn't going to participate."

"Hey Sumire," Satsuki said keeping her voice neutral for now. "Did you see who destroyed our lesser grail?"

The water vampire just smiled at her and raised her one hand that displayed three command seals causing the younger woman to gulp and adopt a stance.

"Good instincts Satsu," Sumire said with that faint smile still on her face.

"Why?" she asked. "You know by doing this you're going up against all of us, Arcueid, Shirou and me. What could possibly cause you to abandon your friendships with all of us?"

"Relax Satsu," Sumire said still standing casually. "You're thinking too hard. I saw a chance to obtain something I wanted in this tournament. Don't see this as throwing our friendship away. Whatever will happen Satsuki," she said seriously. "I will always regard you as my friend."

"Where's your servant," Satsuki asked still off balance.

"Oh him," Sumire said contemplating. "You could say he ran into a problem… or nine."

Satsuki blinked in surprise, "Nine's here," she said.

"Yeah," the older vampire replied. "Apparently he followed you here. Seems he was worried about you. It's quite odd actually; usually he would stick by Shirou. I guess he must feel his master is well protected."

She shook her head and then raised a hand to block the punch that was thrown at her. Immediately she retaliated with a kick that caught the younger woman off guard and three punches at her chest which sent Satsuki tumbling back into the pool.

"Good Satsu," Sumire said to herself ignoring the materialised figure of Hans Christian Anderson. "Use your opponent's distraction against them. She then ducked down as a whip like kick soared over her head from her former apprentice who had teleported at her side. She spun and punched upwards. Her apprentice managed to redirect the blow and she teleported three steps backwards facing Sumire again.

Sumire stepped forward again walking towards her apprentice and then spun around landing an elbow at her teleporting opponent. Satsuki powered through the blow and launched a set of retaliatory blows each of them augmented by the power of her Reality Marble to leech Od when they land. Sumire caught the first two and then dodged the rest stepping back and out of her range. Sumire curled her fist at her hips causing Satsuki's eyes to widen. It was a tell that the Dead Apostle Ancestor had displayed during the years. Pulling out her dagger she managed to intercept her mentors left fist with the knife and matched her right hand with her left. Almost immediately despite Depletion Garden being focused on her left hand she felt damage from the localized storm cut deeply into the arm. However the knife in her right hand not only managed to block the use of Noble Phantasm but also leave a cut on the Water Demon's arm that lingered for a bit before it healed.

"Liking the gift Satsu," Sumire said.

"I would like it a bit more if its presenter wasn't trying to kill me," she bit back.

"Silly Satsu," Sumire said with a slight hint of mocking beneath her smile. "I wasn't trying to kill you. If I was you'd be dead. Here's a question for you," she continued. "Do you know the requirements for teleportation? Not Shirou's method, I mean yours and mine. Do you know what the hardest prerequisite to obtain for it is?"

At seeing Satsuki's blank face she continued. "It's simple in order to teleport the user must have some way to manipulate space and step out of Gaia's grasp. Theoretically Avalon could have been used as a basis to teleport before Shirou disposed of it. So how do both of us do it Satsu?"

"No," Satsuki said in denial as the thought went through her head. "The only way that would work out is if…" She looked in horror at Sumire who merely began to chant.

"I swim among Monsters  
My blood is their water

Satsuki lunged at the Ancestor who nimbly dodged back out of her range. She threw a punch that was caught by Sumire and then she teleported behind her swing her knife which was deftly avoided.

My veins are their nests  
My tears are their salt

Condensing her Reality Marble she tried using it to absorb Sumire's Od but the Ancestor moved sensing the abosrbtion field and she was forced to engage her again.

No longer in despair  
I prepare unseen futures

Satsuki backed off and focused her power into her knife before stabbing it into the floor in front of her causing a wispy vision of a foggy garden to arise around her barely noticing as her servant retreated to behind her.

My body creates  
This Infinite Ocean"

Sumire finished clapping her hands together and the world changed. Blinking her eyes Satsuki was astounded. She had activated her Reality Marble partially before but it had always been wispy and indistinct. Seeing Sumire's Reality Marble just showed her how much she had failed to utilise the potential.

She had heard people say that water stretched as far as the eye could see before, but she had never seen it done quite as literally as it was now. The ocean looked to be a standard ocean if a bit clearer than usual and fish swam around the small portion of garden that she stood on. The horizon in the distance was obscured by a wall of water that rose and replaced the sky leaving the young women surrounded by 360 degrees of seawater.

"Lovely isn't it," the voice came from in front of her and she refocused on her old mentor who was standing ankle deep in the middle of the ocean. "My last one was never as good as this," she continued. "I have you all to thank for that."

"So the world changes as the person changes," Anderson spoke up from behind Satsuki causing her to start. "Your mood or personality was changed upon meeting my master causing your Reality Marble to alter. You're making a subtle suggestion that she should re-examine her Reality Marble as she has changed from when she originally developed it."

A look of shock overtook Sumire's face, "Of course not. I am your opponent right now. My goal is to defeat you and kill your servant."

"Except you haven't been targeting me despite the fact that I'm a weak stationary target, your real objective is…"

Sumire clapped her hands cutting him off as the whole sea rippled. Sumire rose from the water as the thing she was standing on was revealed. While Satsuki was not a marine biologist she hung around with Shirou and Sumire a lot who both had interest in that subject and from what she could tell the creature that her opponent now stood upon had no place in the earth's evolutionary history.

It was massive. There was simply no other word for it. Just looking at it Satsuki was able to determine that it was well over thirty metres. It seemed to have a rough stone shell that covered its entire body except for a single glowing purple eye. The eye twitched taking in the entire world before focusing on Satsuki causing the younger girl to take an involuntary step backwards. The stone shifted revealing disguised holes from which long thin arms with three wicked barbed claws per arm sprung out.

The creature started to move using a dragging motion towards the remaining portion of depletion garden.

"Master," her servant spoke up from behind her. She turned to see him holding up a dagger that dripped blood. "Drip this blood on your feet." Satsuki opened her mouth to argue and then decided against it. She took the dagger and then dripped a drop of the blood on her feet. Immediately her feet were seized with an intense feeling of itchiness. Looking at them she noticed scales start to form over her legs. "You turned me into a mermaid," she yelled at her servant furiously.

"You can be angry at me afterwards Master," Anderson said. "Right now there is a very angry oyster bearing down on you."

Whipping her head back to the creature she was just in time to dodge one of its wicked barbs. She immediately turned and jumped into the ocean feeling the remnants of depletion garden fade away as she did so. Feeling the warm water invigorated her and she immediately felt the remnants of her legs fade away to be replaced by a tail. Shoals of brightly coloured yet utterly alien fish swam by, but she wasn't able to spare a moment to appreciate the variety of species before she was forced to dodge many of the grasping hands, idly noticing a fish or two be dragged down into the holes in the creature's carapace.

Avoiding the hands she swam directly towards the eye of the creature aiming for the one soft spot she could see. However that spot was instantly blocked off by an army of hands that seemed to multiply as they came towards her. One caught her and she struck it causing the hand to snap but also harming her own hand and giving the opportunity for other hands to reach grasp her. She teleported out of the hands feeling herself suddenly more overcome with more fatigue than usual.

"Her Reality Marble is supressing mine," she thought annoyed. "Teleportation is harder. Think what else do I have?" Almost unconsciously her eye drifted to her knife. "According to Sumire it focused the user's reality Marble allowing her to increase its effectiveness against Mana and Od. But that's not all that it could be used for," she thought a plan coming to mind. Once again she swum towards the eye and was confronted by the mass of hands. This time however she was prepared. She threw her knife in an upwards trajectory deliberately avoiding the eye of the creature and she was happy to see that the eye ignored it. She then spread her arms wide and allowed the arms to seize her. Unlike the fish that only required one arm, almost every single arm grasped onto her arms and tail. She winced as some of the claws went directly through her reinforcement and dug into her skin.

She noticed that the creature shifted a bit a large hole opening up in the front that revealed jagged rocks that Satsuki would bet were substitutions for teeth. She struggled pulling at the arms but more and more arms joined in to move her. Closer and closer to the mouth she came and she applied more and more strength until all the arms were restraining her. Then she teleported.

While Sumire's Reality Marble supressed other Reality Marble's the knife was created to focus the power of one so that it could be used despite any adverse effects. With her new found knowledge courtesy of Sumire Satsuki theorized that teleportation was also one of these effects.

Satsuki appeared a dozen metres away from the now unguarded eye in the same location as the knife she threw. She offhandedly noticed that the eye had widened focusing on her at close range forming by accident a remarkably human expression of surprise. Dashing forward using her powerful tail she entered the shell and jabbed in the knife at full speed. She felt hands grasp onto her tail seconds later but she ignored them in favour of further mutilating the eye. Suddenly she was grasped and flung away by one of the arms and she flew a good few metres out of the rocky body. She was immediately forced to dodge a wild swipe from the arms of the creature.

The arms were going berserk attacking every single thing around them, even each other. Satsuki watched in muted surprise as the hands started to break off of the shell revealing a short tail at the end of each of them and slowly swam away from the now lifeless husk. Unexpectedly she was carried upwards by a current and she found herself floating above the water.

"Wow, that was pretty good Satsu," the voice of her former teacher came from behind her and she turned to see her standing upon another monstrosity. This one was similarly huge but worm like with six crab-like arms branching out from its body. Its entire body was covered in glassy eyes that focused on her. "But it is called the Infinite Ocean not the Ocean Containing One Solitary opponent." As she spoke Satsuki felt the entire sea ripple but no other monsters arose. "Luckily for you its dawn," Sumire sighed. "It's far too hard for me to maintain my Reality Marble in the daylight hours," she snapped her fingers and the ocean faded away to be replaced by the darkness of the cave.

"I'll see you another night Satsuki," Sumire said as she turned around to head out.

"Wait," Satsuki said unable to stand due her current body problems. "What is your goal for the grail?"

Sumire entered a contemplating position. "Hmm, I would have to say that my goal is my legacy," she said before she teleported away from the cave.

"I wonder what Master will think of this outcome," the cultured voice of Nine resounded throughout the chamber.

"I can't imagine he will be too happy," Satsuki said.

"On the contrary I think he would be delighted to have a showdown with Sumire," Nine said. "I should inform him that she seems to be setting herself up as your opponent though. I'm sure Shirou has enough enemies anyway."

"How was your opponent," Satsuki asked Shirou's servant curiously.

"He appeared to be Sun Wukong," Nine said. "I believe that he was a bit too polite to be the illustrious Monkey King but I will admit my knowledge on literature is not of the highest standard. Incidentally Lady Yumizuka are you aware you have a tail."

"It's a really long story Nine," Satsuki said. "Excuse me while I beat some sense into a writer."

 **Author Note: Yup all writers deserve regular beatings. Sumire's Reality Marble was thematically inspired by Subnautica.**

 **HawkWasp Yeah I'm well aware that it makes a story more cohesive as well as easier to get into if the chapters are consolidated. Unfortunately doing it that way would increase posting time and decrease the amount of feedback I get after every single chapter. Maybe when I get better and faster at writing I will look into it.**

 **AznPuffyHair Yes One master servant combo hasn't been explicitly revealed although you can guess the Master by the description. Possible death flag... Maybe.**

 **That thing about Alaya hating Magicians and Magicians being incredibly dangerous is canon. Actually Aoko is canonically responsible for the death of the universe some time in the future when she turns back time and when she does that Alaya actively attacks her.**

 **Please Read and Review and provide feedback. Thanks in advance.**


	38. A headache shows up

Shirou sat at the dining room table cradling a cup of coffee and nursing a splitting headache. He gingerly took a sip of the stuff wincing as he did so his muscles aching despite the presence of Nolava II inside him. Across the table his servant sat inspecting him with a look in her eyes that he couldn't quite identify.

"So let me get this straight," he said. "Arcueid and her servant went off to meet up with a magician who may or may not be friendly. Satsuki on the other hand went to track down and inspect the lesser grail to determine if it was still functioning or not."

"Your butler also followed that girl," Ishtar said taking a sip from one of the guest mugs before quite firmly placing the coffee away from her.

"He's the only one that I can honestly say made the correct decision. Honestly what happened to strength in numbers," Shirou leaned back in his chair and sighed. "Honestly they seem determined to make my headache worse."

"You should be back in bed," his servant asserted herself. "You're in no condition to be fighting right now."

Shirou paused for a moment. "You're right he admitted. It would probably be best if I rested up. Unfortunately I can't do that at the moment," he admitted. "I sent Rin out of the temple because it was the best action at the time. However I expected to finish up and properly remove the curse later. That obviously didn't happen and so I find myself in the unenviable position of having to go to Rin's house to see if I need to remove her curse or attend her funeral."

Silence filled the room at that last pronouncement and Shirou got up dusting himself off. "Let's go," he said his voice containing an undercurrent of resolve. Taking the goddesses hand he faded from his kitchen and reappeared in Rin's entryway. While the last time he did this he was concealed, he wouldn't be able to use it on both himself and Ishtar at the same time.

Therefore he found himself momentarily surprised when five men burst into the first room they entered wielding mystic codes. However Shirou found himself reluctantly giving them credit. Besides the really stupid move of suddenly entering the room and attacking two unknowns they acquitted themselves quite well. Of course they were going up against two servant level opponents so 'quite well' ended up with all five of them incapacitated and on the floor within five seconds.

"These simpletons really have no idea who they decided to attack did they," Ishtar spoke up with scorn in her voice. "Next time they should bring another hundred and maybe I can get a light warm-up."

Shirou just shook his head. Rider was not even exaggerating. While a quick glance confirmed the mystic codes that were wielded were powerful and they attacked in a disciplined manner they were far too slow too even mount a defence against the invading duo. Ignoring the unconscious bodies on the floor they simultaneously stepped into the next room and came face-to-face with the Vice Director of the Mage's Association. Upon seeing the pair her saber lowered fractionally as she took in their appearance.

"I trust none of them have been seriously injured," she said her brown eyes boring into the two of them.

"Only their pride," Shirou replied casually. "Have you perhaps seen a young magus? She's about this high with black hair in twintails and a penchant for unreasonably short skirts."

Lorelei merely blinked at the description. "Your friend is upstairs," she said. "She is being tended to by one of my men, please try not to injure him. He's a loaner from the Wandering Sea and one that I have to return in good condition."

Shirou merely nodded to the Vice Director and headed up to Rin's room. Entering the room with Ishtar close behind he took in all the details of the room. He noticed the grown magus who was inspecting Rin using some kind of magecraft, a family magecraft that was based on water he identified with use of the fourth. Shirou also briefly noticed that her room also contained antiquated English décor like the rest of the house. However these images were unimportant as he took in the form of Rin in the most adorable yellow cat's head pyjama's he had ever seen. He felt his lips curl up in a smile as he took in the sight.

"Nice Pyjama's Rin," he said as she raised her head to look at him. She blushed furiously, her whole face turning red and she sat up before her face contorted into a grimace and she fell back onto the bed.

"Please don't disturb the patient," the man in sunglasses said standing up to face the magician. "She needs rest."

"What she needs now actually," Shirou said, "is to have that curse removed." He walked past the man brushing past him. Bending down and ignoring the man's splutters he placed a hand over Rin's forehead taking note of her blush for future reference. After a mere moment's contemplation and ignoring his own headache he grasped the curse analysing the concept of divine poison and crushed it.

Instantly Rin's body reacted as all her muscles tensed up and then she relaxed as all the tension went out of her face and the stress out of her body. Almost immediately she lay back in those cute cat pyjamas' and closed her eyes, drifting off to sleep.

"You can finish healing her now," Shirou said to the magus who had been restrained by his servant while he was performing the procedure. "The curse is gone."

"Impossible," the blonde-haired man stated running back to the sleeping girl and scanning her again and again. Shirou left him to it and headed downstairs to talk to the Queen. Walking into the living room felt a lot like walking into enemy territory. The magi that had been knocked unconscious in their original entrance were now awake and watched Shirou with an intensity of those that refused to be embarrassed a second time. Shirou ignored them and instead focused on the brown haired lady who now sat at the dining room sipping tea. He took a seat next to her and immediately met her eyes, while aware of Ishtar who had stood behind him protecting his back from the others in the room.

"This is a bit of an odd place for you to set up a base," he said leaving the obvious question unasked.

"I met the Tohsaka injured and poisoned today," Lorelei said. "It is necessary for even those who may not like each other to band together to face the common threat." She took another sip of her tea. "I have already prepared a number of bases to use for the duration of the war."

Shirou merely nodded at this. "I have already identified six of the masters on our side," he said. "On the other side I have only got the names of four. Gransurg, Trvhmn, Altroughe and Rizo-Waal," he announced causing the normally stoic Lorelei to noticeably frown in displeasure."

"I see," she finally said. "That won't be easy. Those are four of the strongest Apostle Ancestors that are currently free."

"Worse," Shirou said. "All of the servants I've fought so far have been really strong. In fact the servant I fought today was far more powerful than anything I've ever seen." He resolutely ignored Ishtar's noise of dissatisfaction behind him. "While I believe that my servant and I could beat him, I do not think that it would be a safe bet by any measure."

Lorelei just nodded at him. "Do you know where the lesser grail is? I am concerned about what they could do if they managed to get their hands on it."

"I do," Shirou said. "I am confident that it is safe for the moment. Whether it will remain so in future would be the question. I assume they need the contents of the grails in order to actualize the ritual."

Lorelei nodded. "Indeed," she said. "If you say that it is safe then I will trust you for the moment. Do not betray that trust," she said, the room becoming colder as she fixed Shirou with a glare.

Shirou just nodded ignoring the change in mood. "Have you seen any signs of other Dead Apostles? If I'm correct then they should have brought some of their followers into the city."

Lorelei nodded, "They've taken up refuge in the sewers. I have assigned my brigade to clear their hideouts and curtail the vampire population."

"Think they can handle it Shirou," said as he scanned the room dubiously.

"I have become slightly more sceptical recently," Lorelei said looking at the surrounding magi punitively. Obviously she wasn't too happy that Shirou and his servant defeated them so quickly. The following sight of experienced battle-hardened executors acting like children that had been scolded by their parent almost caused Shirou to burst out into laughter but he restrained it. Behind him Ishtar let out a melodious titter, obviously she found it just as funny but lacked his control.

"Indeed," Shirou said. "I have cured Rin and she should be fine fo…" Suddenly they were both cut-off as the door upstairs was flung open and Rin's doctor came running downstairs.

"How?" he said as he reached the ground panting. "How did you do that? That curse was from the Age of Gods and now it's gone. What did you do?"

Shirou just placed his hand over his face. Next to him Lorelei sighed. "I would like to reiterate," Lorelei said. "I don't normally use him, he's on loan from the Wandering Sea. Britchers get out of here before I do something that will sour relations between our two organisations." This last sentence was punctuated by a glare that caused the man to go stumbling back.

"I should be going," Shirou said before tossing Lorelei a cellphone. "It's a burner," he explained. "It's already programmed with my number. I assume you will bring the delightful Miss Tohsaka up to speed."

Lorelei nodded although Shirou could see a slight hint of disdain on her face for having to use such recent technology. "Shall we go," he addressed the goddess behind him. "Anything you want to say before we go?"

"Not to these mooks," Ishtar answered back flippantly ignoring the looks she received. "Let's go," she said laying an arm around Shirou's neck.

Shirou nodded to that and with a wave of his hand bid the room goodbye as he teleported the two back home.

"Any more ventures outside Shirou," the goddess asked as she once again sat down at the table, her manner of movement and general lack of any concealing clothing made the act appear incredibly sensuous.

"No," her master replied clutching his head. "I'm still not up to one hundred percent," he admitted. "Quite frankly those short exertions nearly made me want to take a nap right there." He fixed Ishtar with an inquisitive look. "Do you know precisely what happened while I was trapped inside the sphinx?"

"No," Ishtar said, her voice dripping with dissatisfaction. "One moment you were sucked into the sphinx and the next," she made an explosion hand gesture, "boom. No sphinx and then you were on the ground looking like you had just got back from the war."

Shirou frowned slightly at his servant's words. "I remember a desert," he began. "Some sphinxes, feeling trapped with no water." He shook his head. "After that it's all blank, I don't remember how I got out."

Ishtar crawled up onto the table the sole covering that was the loincloth that she wore moving beguilingly as she did so. "There was one more thing," she said. "The colour of your eyes when you did this were the most beautiful scarlet. Do you have any idea what that means."

"I have an idea," Shirou said as the goddesses face approached his own. Ishtar didn't seem to be in the mood for talking as stared into his eyes. She reached her hand to cup his cheek and licked her lips erotically. Suddenly Shirou jerked his head to the side.

"Somebody just attempted to enter the boundary field with Arcueid," he said and Ishtar noticed the slightest apprehension in his voice. "We better go meet them."

"By my name," Ishtar said. "They better have a good reason for interrupting us."

Shirou just shrugged and deliberately avoided eye contact with his servant in an attempt to get his hormones under control something that raised a smile on the servants face as she noticed his attempt. Walking to the door he deliberately reloaded his gun as he did so and kept it within easy access. Shaking his head and deliberately relaxing he stepped out into the garden. Walking past the gate he left the area that contained the spatial-temporal protections his eyes fell upon the three females and one male.

The first female and male were Arcueid and Shiki. Arcueid looked rather casual in her situations but Shiki looked more alert. Even with his eyes covered by bandages he still turned right around to face them when they left the house.

The other two were less familiar to Shirou. There was a petite green haired girl in what appeared to be a miko's outfit who clung to the other girl's arm. The last person there had red hair and blue eyes and wearing a white T-shirt and jeans. It took Shirou only a few moments to realise that the person on his doorstep was his sister.

"Hello," he said greeting the assembly neutrally. "Welcome to my house."

"Shirou," Arcueid said turning towards him. "You're looking well."

"I'm still a little sore," he admitted before turning to the two other girls. "I don't believe we've been introduced," he said. "I am the master of this house Shirou Inke. What are your names."

And then his sister Aoko Aozaki punched him in the face.

xxx

The fight had already lasted five minutes. Arcueid had merely watched the fight from the side-lines, deciding not to stop the family meeting and Shiki had followed her. Rider had restrained Berserker within the first few seconds and the petite girl now was struggling from within a sleeper-hold watching the two magicians deck it out.

And the two were still going at it. The fight had started with a display of martial arts until Shirou brought out his gun and then Aoko retaliated by firing multiple bullets of magic that destroyed the ice that Shirou summoned and she was forced to dodge the retaliatory icicles that were sent towards her. With a gesture the area around Shirou had been reduced to a crater that left a solid coffin of metal as the only survivor. She was then forced to dodge a stab from behind by a teleporting Shirou using the fifth to travel to a time that the strike didn't exist. Shirou was then knocked away by numerous unseen impacts but he weathered the blows and produced a black poisonous corrosive fog that managed to get Aoko to back down. And that was their current situation. The both of them stood opposite each other after releasing multiple deadly attacks against the other.

The first person to speak was the magician of the fifth. "Why," she said sounding honestly pissed off. "Why the hell are you wearing his face and stealing his name?"

"Blue," Shirou said. "Stop trying to pretend what is happening in front of you doesn't exist. Delusion doesn't suit you."

The red-headed girl went very quiet for a moment and then her head snapped up her sorrow turning to anger. "But then why after all this time, did you never think to tell me you were alive. Am I going to find out our parents also miraculously survived the fire and everybody I love is suddenly okay?"

"They're dead," Shirou said through gritted teeth. "I was seven, far too young to even find you. You behaved just like Touko and went gallivanting around the world as soon as you reached an age leaving the people who cared for you behind. What right do you have to complain now?"

"What right do I have," Aoko yelled out. "They were my parents, I loved them. I would have taken care of you if I'd known that you were alive. Did you even put any effort into tracking me down?" At Shirou's silence she exhaled. "Nevermind," she said.

The silence was broken by the sound of footsteps in the night street. "This isn't over," Aoko said turning towards the sound of the noise.

"Let's save it until after this war," Shirou replies.

The footsteps intensified until Satsuki emerged from the darkness, Nine following a few seconds behind. Seeing the group she stopped and noticed the new arrival. She looked uncertain for a few moments before Shirou.

"Satsuki, this is Aoko Aozaki," Shirou said.

"Oh, so you're Shirou's…" she cut herself off at Aoko's murderous look.

Aoko took a deep breath, "Yes we're brother and sister," she said letting it out. "Don't mind me I'm just a bit on edge."

"And the green-haired girl," she said looking back to where Berserker was trying to bite into Rider's arms.

"Mine I'm afraid," Aoko said.

"Okay," Satsuki said. Then she suddenly got more serious. "Sumire's betrayed use," she said causing the street to go quiet.

The reactions she got were not all that she expected. Aoko looked merely puzzled and while Arcueid looked completely taken off guard, Shirou merely inclined his head a bit.

"Let's talk more inside," the fourth magician said.

xxx

The collective group of eight sat around the table while Nine busied himself to prepare beverages for them.

"So Sumire destroyed the lesser grail, ambushed you and has a reality marble that summons sea monsters, and you turned into a mermaid," Shirou said reiterating the main parts of the story.

"Yes," said Satsuki gritting her teeth at the reminder. "What will happen now that the lesser grail is destroyed," she asked with concern in her voice.

"Simple," Shirou said. "The other lesser grails will pick up the pace." At the looks of shock that came from the table he elaborated. "I never put all my eggs in one basket there are five lesser grails that are hidden around the city. Well," he said thoughtfully. "Four now. As long as even one is running the souls of the heroes will be accumulated in one of them."

"Is it possible to track them down," Aoko asked.

"Theoretically," Shirou said. "I conjecture is that if a servant is killed the killer may be able to follow the path of the soul to one of the grails." He shrugged his shoulders. "The problem with that though is so few beings have any ability to perceive souls. It's not a very viable solution."

xxx

A magus workshop usually tended to be filled with half-completed works with plenty of notes that documented all research to future generations. It also tended to be a huge giveaway of their interests. For example the Tohsaka's workshop would contain various jewels that were being worked as well as notes on jewels and maybe some mystic codes that employed jewels.

The Matou's workshop contained a pit of a blood worms as well as research into many of the familiars and notes on their family magecraft.

Gransurg Blackmore's magecraft revolved around birds and therefore his workshop contained many diagrams of birds as well as specimens that were altered by magecraft both living and dissected as well as research into the nature of birds and lastly records about his research into the acquisition and storing of souls.

His servant on the other hand's workshop didn't abide by this rule. Diagrams of specimens to be built sat amidst machines both strange and wonderful. Notes on magecraft containing the knowledge dozens of fields were stacked on shelves while breath-taking pictures adorned the walls. Sculptures were periodically dotted throughout the room and one side of the wall was adorned with a massive computer screen.

In the middle of the room lay an operating table. On the operating table lay what remained of Gransurg Blackmore. Of his original body only his head, chest and half of one arm remained. This would have meant death or permanent disability in the eyes of every doctor or magus in the world. Luckily for him the person that tended to him was beyond the ability of every doctor or magus in existence. She had brown hair, blue eyes and a beautiful smile and she operated on the Dead Apostle Ancestor recreating and improving his body to such an extent that Victor Frankenstein would have gone down on his knees to watch the procedure.

"Isn't the technology of this time amazing," the woman remarked to herself inspecting a sample of carbon nanotubing. "If only I had this back in my time I could have done so much more," the woman said showing no signs of regret. "And aren't I fortunate that I have all these resources," she stated looking at the man on the table. "Whatever weapon that caused you to end up in such a state also managed to strip the Curse of Restoration from your body. The only thing that could possibly do that is an Anti-World Noble Phantasm." She smiled and picked up the next tool. "Don't worry though I will have you up and better than ever, as I have to."

Suddenly the sound of a phone ringing broke through the silence of the laboratory. The woman picked it up with one hand not even bothering to glance at the number. "Leone, here," she said. "Oh Sumi it's you. How are you doing?" The woman shifted her attention from the operation to the phone as the voice responded. "So there was more than one. That was a clever tactic." More chatter came from the other side of the phone. "So you would need my master to track down the location of the rest." It took her only a brief moment before she came up with an answer. "I hope you know what you are doing Sumi. He will be up and ready in about a day. Good luck."

 **Author Note: Took me forever to finish this chapter. Didn't know quite how to do it. I even completed another chapter of my other story in the meantime. I'll try to update more frequently if possible.**

 **Guest: There will be another chapter of After the Date. I'll tell you when it's out. The second person should be guessable by now. The fight with Nine was mostly defensive.**

 **Please Read and Review. It helps me when there is feedback.**


	39. Dreaming of Gods and Goddesses

Shirou's eyes opened as suddenly he re-joined the realm of wakefulness. Light shone through the blinds on his window indicating that the time was somewhere in the middle of the afternoon. Trying to stretch out he found that his arms were pinned to his side. Blinking the sleep from his eyes he turned his head to the left to find that Arcueid had attached himself to his left side. She was facing him and was clearly in deep sleep. Sighing internally Shirou realised that he had absolutely zero chance of waking her up at this time and to get out he would have to teleport.

Turning his head to the other side, he became aware of the presence of Ishtar his servant. Unlike his vampire lover she clung to his arm but her eyes were open and she regarded him as he lay there. Almost unconsciously he began to surge prana through his command seals and then he stopped. Rider had already proven that she had no ulterior motives for him when she took care of him while he was injured. Despite her reputation Shirou had decided to treat her as an ally based on the strength of her actions.

"I suppose it would be superfluous of me to ask you why you are in my bed, Ishtar," he said with a note of weary acceptance in his voice.

"Oh," the goddess said coquettishly. "I was standing outside the room protecting you in your fragile state. After all, 'your sister' that violent redhead decided to stay in your house with the rest of the group last night and you still hadn't recovered. Then Arcueid decided to come in and cuddle you while you when you were sleeping. I resisted the urge to do so as well but then I noticed you were talking in your sleep Master." She suddenly scrutinized Shirou's face intently. "Tell me Shirou, how long have you been having dreams of my life?"

"What makes you think I've been having dreams of your life," Shirou replied back warily.

"Really, Shirou," the Babylonian goddess giggled. "I don't care about your voyeuristic tendencies there is no need to get so defensive. But you mumbling the name of my servant in your dream is a definite clue." She smiled then but there was a hint of discomfort in her smile. "So which portion of my life was it?" At his hesitation she started cajoling. "Come on Shirou. I don't mind you watching but you can at least tell me what you saw. Did you enjoy it," she finished off seductively.

"You were on a boat," Shirou began. "You were carrying something I think but I couldn't see what it was. Your servant was with you and she was fighting off massive sea-monsters that attacked you."

"They weren't sea-monsters," Ishtar said absentmindedly. "That was an earlier portion of my life. I remember exactly what I stole." She paused to think for a moment. "Well actually I have a feeling the person I took it from wanted me to take it," she said smiling at Shirou. "He seemed pretty happy with me afterwards.

She hugged him tighter pressing his arm deeper into her breasts. "Any more dirty dreams you had of me," she said. "Come on I won't tell."

Shirou thought for a moment but then ultimately decided to tell her as it was ultimately her life that was on display. "I've had a few," he said. "The first one you looked young and you were looking for a function. You went to complain that you had none and you were told that you didn't need one assigned to you and that you should find your own."

"Yes. I remember that," the goddess smiled nearly causing Shirou to lose his breath at her beauty. "I was so young back then. I took that statement as a personal challenge." She laughed with more than a hint of nostalgia in her voice. "I gained more and more power until I was among the strongest of the gods of Babylonia." She shook her head. "So which ones are next?"

Shirou looked at her contemplating how he could describe the next dream. Some of his hesitation must have shown on his face as the goddess patted him on his shoulder. "It's okay," she said. "You don't have to tell me if it makes you feel uncomfortable."

Shirou took a deep breath. "You were relaxing under a palm tree," he began.

"You don't have to finish that story Shirou," Ishtar said. "I know how that tale goes. Don't worry I'm over it."

"How can you be so flippant about something so awful happening," Shirou asked slightly stunned.

The goddess just shrugged. "It was pretty bad," she said. "That kind of thing is pretty much the worst thing that can happen to a woman. But it was a long time ago. I'm no longer bear strong feelings about it. I got my revenge and moved on."

Shirou simply nodded at that statement. While he couldn't empathise with that kind of situation, she obviously did not want to make a big deal about it and so he would abide by her wishes.

"The third dream I had was a continuation of the second where you were petitioning for the location of the person," Shirou said practically spitting out the word person. "You were told the location and you went off to exact justice."

Ishtar nodded recalling the scene.

"The fourth dream was you escaping from what I believe was the underworld. There was another person who escaped along with you and you met up with somebody else outside."

Ishtar winced. "That was not one of my best deeds," she said defensively. "I'm pretty sure you saw me getting chewed out as well."

"Pretty gentle for a chewing out," Shirou replied. "You nearly doomed the world and all you got was that lecture."

"Indeed," Ishtar said and there was a trace of bitterness in her voice that almost instantly faded. "What was the next one," she said.

"The next one was the one I just woke up from," Shirou said.

The silence between the two stretched although it wasn't very uncomfortable Shirou felt compelled to break it. "I'm going to make food," he said. "Anything you want."

At Ishtar's rejection he teleported out of the two girls' grasp and landed on his feet in the bedroom. Noticing that the pain from yesterday's adventure had disappeared entirely, he headed for the doorway when he was stopped one last time by Ishtar's voice.

"Shirou," she said seriously. He turned back to see Ishtar had fallen into the grasp of Arcueid creating quite a comical sight. "Do you have any way to stop those memories from going through?"

"Not without severing the contract," he replied. It was as good as a refusal. Dissolving the contract was something that neither of them had any desire to do.

Ishtar groaned. "Those memories don't have a happy ending Shirou," she beseeched him.

"I'm sorry," Shirou replied to the goddess. She just nodded and he left the room for the kitchen.

xxx

Satsuki sat on the floor of her room staring at the dagger that Sumire had given her. While her betrayal still stung slightly it had been mitigated by time and the discussion that she had with Shirou and Arcueid last night. Both of them had comforted her but she had got this persistent feeling that she was the one that was worst hit by the whole situation by far.

In fact Shirou had seemed vaguely smug that by creating backup grails he had got one over the crafty vampire and Arcueid didn't seem to bear her any ill will merely stating that she would not go easy on her.

"Tell me Caster," she addressed her servant asking for advice despite her better judgement. "Am I wrong for feeling betrayed about this?"

"Betrayal is utter poison to all. It turns all sweet times sour and reduces men to mindless beasts in search of vengeance. When a dog bites his master or the master whips his dog it fractures the bond between them and slices deep into the other. Your reaction is nothing more or less than entirely human. "

Satsuki frowned as that explanation failed to sooth her at all. Taking a moment to digest his words she decided to change the subject. "What do you think I should do about the problems with my Reality Marble," she said to her servant. "

"It is not the job of the author to provide advice to his characters," Anderson said in his infuriating way.

"That would be the job of the side characters wouldn't it?" This was said by Shirou as he stepped into the room.

"What are you doing here?" Satsuki blurted out slightly self-conscious at him overhearing her musing.

"I was coming here to ask if you wanted anything to eat," Shirou said calmly. "Now however I am more curious about these so-called problems with your Reality Marble." When Satsuki made no move to inform him he sighed. "I'm not going to judge you or call you weak," he said. "And I'm not going to betray you Satsuki," he continued striking a nerve. "But you need to consider the fact that others may have unique knowledge or perspectives that could help you with your problem."

"Well unless you have done any research on Reality Marbles and how they change I do not think you will be able to help me here," Satsuki said shrugging her shoulders. Shirou's face then morphed into the smuggest smile she had ever seen from him. "No," she said. "There is absolutely no way you can tell me that you've done research on this phenomenon."

"Okay," Shirou said his smile only growing wider. "I won't tell you." He reached into his jacket and pulled out a collection of notes. On the front page the title read "On Reality Marbles and their impermanency" by Shirou Inke. Satsuki just looked up from the book and regarded Shirou whose smug smile had faded and was replaced by a calm look of triumph.

"Where did you even get subjects for your research," Satsuki asked with honest confusion. "I have never discussed Reality Marble's with you. You also said you had no idea about Sumire's Reality Marble," she stated suspiciously.

"And I didn't," Shirou replied. "But you're forgetting one other person in who lives under this roof who has a Reality Marble. Nine inherited his Reality Marble from Nrvnqsr Chaos. However when he activated it, there were large differences between the two. I studied those differences and extrapolated a rough theory of psyche-marble correlation."

Satsuki opened up the book and flipped through it skimming the pages. A few of the terms went over her head which said less about her lack of aptitude on magecraft and more about Shirou's absolute immersion in it. She picked up multiple references in the book to other theories that were most likely invented by the magician.

Her eyes fell upon a certain few words that resounded in her head and she glanced down at the dagger that Sumire had given her.

"Did I ever tell you the story of how I defeated a demon," Shirou spoke up causing the final pieces of the puzzle to click neatly together.

Satsuki raised the dagger to eye level inspecting it before nodding to herself. "You did," she confirmed. "Thank you. Now I will use the same method to defeat my own weakness. Observing the reality will help bring it about the book says. Are you replacing Sumire as my teacher now?"

Shirou just shook his head answering negative to the question. "Before you undertake that incredibly dangerous thing you are thinking of doing hear me out," Shirou said his voice grave and he stepped closer to Satsuki stooping to gaze into her eyes. "I don't just talk because I like hearing myself speak and while I may not be as good as Hans over there at analysing people I have known you for a long time now."

He took a breath to slow down the situation and then spoke. "When you first got your power your Reality Marble manifested almost immediately," he said. "In fact within just a day after you became a vampire you were already unconsciously draining mana from the environment. However the strength that allowed you to obtain your Reality Marble so soon also became your weakness. You were just a girl who had been thrown into a wider world of magic and monsters. Thus your Reality Marble formed in an attempt to drain the supernatural and make other beings weaker, closer to your level. But you changed, you grew strong, you obtained knowledge and you lost your fear. Depletion Garden is the safety blanket of Satsuki Yumizuka that was bitten by a vampire on that fateful night and it no longer suits you. Your new Marble will make you stronger and not everybody else weaker. Good luck Satsuki," he said as he stepped backwards standing next to Caster.

Satsuki nodded her mouth suddenly dry. She picked up the dagger that Sumire had given her and with one swift movement plunged it into her heart. In the very next second she was sucked into the dagger disappearing from the room and causing the dagger to fall onto the cover of the bed.

The room was silent for a moment. "Did she really have to stab herself in her heart," Shirou said. "I know it has lots of dramatic effect but surely for practical purposes the hand or a non-vital area would have been just as good. Or maybe just a tiny pinprick or maybe just hold it close. Anderson are you making everything pointlessly dramatic."

"Not everything," the acclaimed author replied. "If I was writing this scene I would have written a decent speech and not that excrement that you were spewing."

"There was nothing wrong with my speech," Shirou said. "And don't think I didn't notice the compulsion to actually enter Satsuki's room. You somehow wrote me into this scene."

"Do you actually object," Anderson said. "Your grievances have all the weight of worthlessly barking dogs. You had the knowledge and you were rapturous to divulge it."

"Well I'm not really that upset," Shirou admitted. "I'll forgive you completely if you write me appearing in the nick of time in a future scene."

"That's not how my Noble Phantasm works," Anderson stated. "But I will make an attempt."

xxx

Satsuki woke up on the floor to the sight and feel of icy mist surrounding her. Her chest ached and burned causing her to silently resolve never to do that again. Putting her hands on the floor to push herself up she realised that she lay upon crumbling cold dirt. Standing upright she noticed that she was surrounded on all sides by the cold semi-condensate substance that chilled her bones. Reaching out to gather mana and use a light spell she realised to her embarrassment that there was not a drop of mana in the surrounding area.

"Obviously there is no mana," she thought to herself. "This is the Depletion Garden." She took a step forward and was forced to jump backwards as the ground crumbled revealing blackness beneath the space where her foot was. "Or what's left of it," she thought to herself silently ignoring the irony of depletion garden running out of juice.

She could feel the world decaying around her as she trudged through the empty world breathing in the freezing air. "Let me think," she said. "My original power was based on my self-image as a helpless newcomer to the world. Its function was to weaken those around me to make everybody feebler."

She walked forward as for the first time in a long while she contemplated herself. "I no longer see the world that way," she said even as the world continued to further fall apart. "My goal for such a long time has been to obtain strength so that I could stand next to Arcueid and Shirou… or Sumire," she said her voice momentarily weakening due to the freshness of the wound. I wouldn't accept a power that made everybody weak." The entire world trembled and Satsuki easily maintained her footing. "But what attracted me to them," she contemplated. "I think… I think it was because they represented everything I wasn't at the time. Strong and powerful but also free. They didn't have to drink blood and kill. They ruled their instincts and I was the opposite."

She stared at her hands. "I've always been told I have potential," she whispered to herself. "But I've never been able to match the three of them."

"That's the thing with potential," a voice suddenly called out through the mist. "It is a lot like money. No matter how much you have it is utterly useless until you use it. For all your latent power you have not chosen a direction in which to develop it."

From the fog another version of Satsuki stepped out. She wore her old school uniform and had blood red eyes causing Satsuki to instantly go on her guard. "Good instincts," the doppelganger said displaying fangs in her mouth. "It's pointless though since I lack the ability to harm you."

"What are you," the original Satsuki said showing understandable wariness towards her vampiric doppelganger.

At this the doppelganger laughed, "What am I," she said. "We're in your Reality Marble. What do you think I am?"

"Some remnant of the virus that Shirou wasn't able to eliminate," Satsuki answered back with no hesitation. "Whatever you are I want no part of you."

"Oh, don't you," Doppelganger Satsuki said. "You say that even as you partake in the advantages that come from me."

"Advantages," Satsuki queried not losing her guard.

"Yes Shirou removed the bloodlust and weakness to water and brought you closer to humanity in the operation. However you still had enhanced strength and speed that stuck despite being weakened. Why do you think that was?"

"You," Satsuki replied coolly analysing the situation. "So I absorbed some of the traits from you that doesn't mean I am an apostle."

"No it doesn't," the twin admitted. "Due to Shirou's surgery you were able to isolate the Dead Apostle and contain it. But it was only due to your innate power that you were still able to take on only your preferred attributes.

"Is that my Reality Marble," Satsuki asked trying to steer the conversation towards her objective.

"Not yet," false Satsuki said. "To take in the traits of other beings and store them while still being you. It is the ultimate expression of potential, nothing less than the ability to have all the abilities. A Reality Marble reflects its bearer's madness. If you want to recreate your Reality Marble like this then two things must be required," the double said inspecting Satsuki.

"First you will never stop improving yourself. Every second of every day you will be stricken with a desire to improve yourself. You will desire to grow and evolve. Your current state of being will be a transient image. Your future will be an ideal you will never stop chasing."

"The second is that you will stop being human. I can already hear your thoughts screaming out to me stating that you haven't been human for a long time. This you know is a lie. If you choose to undertake this you will eventually forget how humans think and you will lose the ability to gain any human acquaintances. Humanity will become a stranger to you."

The red-eyed Satsuki stepped back and smiled. "These are the two charges that you would suffer for obtaining this power. Choose," she said folding her arms over her chest.

Satsuki opened her mouth to accept and paused. The power that lay in front of her was enormous but the costs were equally as great. If she chose this power, would she forever be a machine seeking to change herself every day? Would all her relationships suffer, by taking this choice she was already fated to lose her connection to humanity, but would the day come when Shirou, Arcueid and Sumire would give up on her. She gritted her teeth feeling the enamel grinding. She wanted power but was the loss of freedom worth it. How terrible would it be to have to go through life dealing with those instincts every day?

Her hands dropped to her side as she had an epiphany. "You bastard," she yelled at her clone. "Those costs are not that strenuous." This was true. Satsuki had been dealing with both of these for the past few years as she tried to attain strength each day while maintaining her connection to humanity.

"If Arcueid can resist drinking blood then I can resist the madness," she said. "Life is not only comprised of absolutes. I can be more than my Reality Marble. Do it," she said staring at her doppelganger.

Clap, clap, clap. The noise resounded throughout the misty expanse as her doppelganger clapped her hands enthusiastically together. After about ten seconds she stopped clapping. "Well done," she said. "You showed some good resolve and despite inconveniencing me that is something that I can appreciate."

"What about my new Reality Marble," Satsuki said still staring at the other her.

"Why are you asking me," the doppelganger said. "Look around you." To Satsuki's mild surprise she started to notice the changes. "Patches of grass had sprung out from the dirt, the air began to warm slightly and the mist began to thin. "Your determination is what creates your Reality Marble, not me. You have accepted who you are and what it means. Look over there."

A wiry thin tree stem grew out from the soil. Somehow despite its young appearance Satsuki got a sense of its importance. As she set eyes on it however a sharp jolt of pain rocked her chest and reverberated through her insides sending her to her knees.

"The centre of your Reality Marble is that tree," the doppelganger said not paying Satsuki any attention. "You know this is the last time I will ever be able to contact you once your Reality Marble is awake." The girl clicked her fingers and smiled let me give you a present before I go away for good. She looked back and noticed Satsuki kneeling in pain. "Changing the layout of your entire soul may hurt a bit," she said in response to Satsuki's unspoken question. "It's not rocket science."

At those last words she walked up to the still growing stem crouched down over it and in one movement slit her throat. Satsuki's eyes widened as she took in the violent sight in front of her and she could suddenly feel the tree lapping up the blood eagerly.

Suddenly the body of the other Satsuki fell down to the ground and her lifeblood continued to leak into the earth around the tree.

"Well this is the end of the road for me," she said to the horrified Satsuki, somehow managing to talk with her throat slit. "You now properly possess my blood. I saw something special in you and I know you will do countless spectacular things. Under other circumstance I would have been happy to give you the name of Brunestud."

With that last sentence the corpse fell silent to the floor and Satsuki soon joined it.

xxx

Within an instant of Satsuki reappearing in her bedroom Shirou had discarded his light meal and was holding her unconscious form and analysing her from top to bottom.

"Huh," he said after about thirty seconds of scanning and rescanning. "That is different. Nine," he said calling out to his servant.

"Yes, Master," his servant replied appearing by his side.

"Watch over her as she sleeps," Shirou said taking a look outside at the dusk light. "Please call me when she wakes. "I'm willing to bet she has some spectacular stories to tell."

 **Author Note: Happy Easter or equivalent holiday everybody.**

 **stevesgaming87: That is the problem with doing it by yourself. It is very hard to edit your own work and determine whether something is correct or not. If enough people complain I will attempt to get a beta reader but until then I can only try to make less mistakes.**

 **Albertrojas: Len is somewhere about keeping her usual low profile. The problem with Len at the moment is that there is no conceivable job she can do. Shirou doesn't want her to interfere with his dreams. He is taking advantage of the dream cycle. Even this chapter when Ishtar warned him about it he decided against asking for her help.**

 **adislt: Yes Shirou did but he also recovered his memories when he was ten. The problem with that situation is that it was not a debate. Instead it was two angry people taking frustrations out on each other.**


	40. Honestly these chapter titles take me

A subdued ringing rang out through the darkness only to be silenced by the simple click of a button. "Shirou speaking," the man who pressed the button said as he stood on a roof inspecting a skyscraper that sat across the street. It was a few hours into the night and Shirou could see perfectly under the light of the moon. He had tracked down this place by using his old reliable spell named [Poseidon's eye]. The bounded field had radiated enough prana for him to instantly zero in on its location and track it down. Eying it he was made immediately aware of the fact that it was both an immensely powerful bounded field and it had been created in an impossibly short time.

"Vampire One, I'm in position at the north side of the building," the voice of Arcueid rang out from the smartphone.

"I'm also by her side," the voice of Shiki came from beside her. "I can see the point of death of the bounded field. If you want I can destroy it."

"Let's leave it for now," Shirou replied. "Let's gather a bit more intel before we kick over the hornet's nest. And Arcueid you really don't have to do this codename business we're not secret agents and in a few moment's they will be very aware of whom we are."

"Red One here," the sound of Aoko's voice came through the smartphone as another person joined the collection. "I actually agree with Vampire One about the code names. It could help give us the element of surprise in case some vampires have managed to hack the phones."

"Firstly," Shirou said ignoring the enthusiastic agreement bestowed upon Red One by her servant Red Two. "I'm not sure it is even possible to hack a cell phone. There aren't any wires to tap. Secondly, there's only about one ancestor that has any aptitude in technology… and I've just jinxed us," he finished up looking around guiltily.

"Can we be serious," a rather annoyed voice from Shirou's phone announced the presence of Shirou's favourite twintailed magus. "I would actually prefer to survive tonight."

"Right," Shirou said abandoning his playful mode of speech. "I would estimate at least one ancestor inside the building judging by the protections that are involved. Best case scenario would be that it is the seventh master on our side. Worst case scenario is that there are all seven ancestors and the beast of Gaia in there."

"And if that happens we're all dead," Rin remarked.

"Not necessarily," Shirou countered. "They're not known for their cohesiveness I may be able to turn them against each other or create a lot of crossfire. If that happens you retreat Rin," he said.

No arguments came from the magus. The past few fights had not done wonders for her confidence and she had not fully mentally recovered from almost dying yesterday. Shirou picked up a box on the ground next to him, opened it up and unveiled his latest acquisition that he had ordered from America. It was a small helicopter drone with a video feed that would send the images wirelessly to a screen that was currently being held by Ishtar.

He sent the drone through the bounded field, the magecraft fuelled barrier doing nothing to stop the small piece of modern technology. Directing the drone through the window he stepped back and glanced over his servants shoulder and felt his breath hitch. The room that his drone had entered was full to the brim of the dead and guarded by one vampire who was staring at the mini-helicopter and in the next frame the drone was destroyed.

"Alright," Shirou said standing up straight. "That building is crawling with the dead. I spotted one vampire as well before he took offence to my spying. We're going to go in there and wipe them all out. Expect at least one Apostle Ancestor to show up. Red one and two as well as Rin and her servant will go from the top and clear the way down. Vampire One and Two head up from the bottom, get rid of the field and cut those fleeing off. Help other members of our group at your discretion."

A few words of acknowledgement later and he terminated the open call leaving the others to do their job. Already he could see Aoko and Rin on the roof with their servants and he took the time to watch as they entered the rooftop entrance.

"Do you think we're going to run into a couple servants or Ancestors," Ishtar said putting down the now defunct screen.

"Almost certainly," replied Shirou. "This base has very sophisticated boundary fields. They were almost certainly created by an ancestor and he is most likely going to be very pissed when they go down."

The two of them moved to stand at the edge of the roof and watched as the bounded field flickered out of existence.

"Well it's safe to say the hornet's nest has been kicked," Shirou remarked. "Prepare to snipe anybody leaving the…"

He was cut off as his servant in one smooth movement summoned her bow nocked an arrow and fired it destroying a projectile that approached from his blindspot. Simultaneously Shirou was just able to conjure up a wall of ice to the back of Ishtar the moment before several swords would have left her impaled.

"And here they come," Shirou said focusing on the new arrival. There was no lag between comprehensions of their new company and his name. Despite being outfitted in different clothes from any other time he had previously seen him, the presence of Gilgamesh was unmistakable. What was different was his manner of attack. Gilgamesh never struck Shirou as the sort of person to… oh wait Ishtar, he rebuked himself. When he had first learned the name of his servant he had been astounded by the fact that he had apparently managed to summon a goddess. This was quickly followed by the realization that Gilgamesh and his servant being in close proximity to on another would lead to difficulties. Now as he saw the gold-armour of his friendly acquaintance and saw the look on his face he realised that he was pissed.

But that didn't account for the other projectile. In an instant Ishtar had fired three separate arrows that exploded on a nearby rooftop before focusing on Gilgamesh again.

The golden king took one look at the Babylonian goddess before he turned his head slightly and faced his unseen opponent. "Cease your cowardly tactics and show yourself before me, before I wipe you off the face of my planet," he yelled out conveniently ignoring his own sneak attack a scant few seconds ago.

His words seemed to work as the tanned, white haired, red cloaked servant that Shirou had tangled with a couple nights ago appeared on the roof in a position equidistant between the master-servant pair of Shirou-Ishtar and Gilgamesh.

"I am here to kill the boy," the servant spoke to Gilgamesh. "You can take whatever revenge on the goddess that you want."

Gilgamesh shifted and Shirou instinctively realised that was the wrong thing to say to him. "I can take whatever revenge on the goddess I want without your permission Alaya's dog," Gilgamesh said his voice containing traces of dark amusement. "Do you even know why Alaya is so desperate to finish him off," Gilgamesh shook his head. "No you wouldn't know anything. Begone I have no more time to spend on some imbecile who sold his soul."

The servant didn't say anything and a white sword materialised in his right hand and a black sword in his left.

"So be it," Gilgamesh said to himself golden portals materialising around him. In the very next instant a mass of weapons descended on the red-cloaked servant who summoned a massive silver and blue shield that proved an impenetrable barrier to the collective weaponry.

"Prydwen," Shirou muttered to himself as he briefly used the fourth to scan the shield. "It seems my conjecture was correct he can replicate any weapon he can see." Shirou's musing was suddenly cut-off as the servant took advantage of a lull in the onslaught to change targets and charge down Shirou. His swords disappeared to be replaced by a scarlet spear that he thrust towards Shirou. Shirou immediately summoned a wall of ice in front of him to stop the spear but it was not necessary as the white-haired servant was forced to block a bolt of light from Ishtar with the shaft of his spear. The goddess followed up the attack by dashing towards him and as he readied his spear to stab Shirou's servant he suddenly found himself at the business end of a fully formed Babylonian boat that had appeared in the place of Servant Rider's Bow. The boat dashed forward at speeds exceeding that of a servant and rammed the unfortunate man off the roof and into the next building.

"Well," Shirou said blinking at the sight. "That was certainly a thing that happened just now. It seems as if she's getting quite protective of me." Gilgamesh just made a non-committal noise as he watched the boat morph back into the form of a bow and Ishtar stalk into the building after the other servant.

"Listen Gilgamesh," Shirou started with a note of hesitation in his voice. "Can we just leave her out of our fight? She's my partner for the Grail War and I'm getting a bit fond of her." Gilgamesh glared at Shirou for a moment and then he all of a sudden he exhaled wearily displaying troubling un-Gilgamesh behaviour.

"I'm pretty sure I've made it quite clear I'm not a god Shirou," Gilgamesh started giving a half-smile. "Is that not how the axiom goes? Is forgiveness not meant to be the province of the divine. He raised his hands and gold portals materialised behind him. "Come," he said inviting Shirou forward to his destruction. "Let's not spoil our battle with the likes of her." And with a gesture of his hand Shirou faced down a wall of gold.

xxx

Ishtar strode through the ruins of the floor that had taken a direct hit from her Heavenly Boat Maana. She had decided to attack the Counter Guardian on the spur of the moment but in hindsight it had been a great idea. There was no love lost between her and Gilgamesh and her presence would surely drive the King of Babylon to unleash some of his more lethal weaponry in an attempt to reduce her to dust. Both Shirou and Gilgamesh seemed to be on good terms despite their differing sentiments towards her and she was certain that their fight would not be immediately lethal.

This animal had attacked her friend and seemed determined to cut him down and would receive no mercy from her. Her instincts blared and a moment later she dodged a beam of holy light that blazed through her previous location and impacted the building that Shirou and Gilgamesh fought upon causing a huge chunk of the building to be demolished. Ishtar was unable to look for her master as she was forced to into melee range by the red-cloaked counter guardian. She blocked the white blade with her blow and was forced to dodge the black blade. Stepping to her left she ducked and swung a low kick at the servants legs and when he stepped back she pirouetted and smashed her bow into the pair of the pair of swords the servant raised to block shattering them and sending him sliding a few feet to the side from the impact.

She quickly notched her bow and sent three bolts of light towards him that were all deflected by another set of that pair of swords. He advanced swiftly and soon Ishtar was forced to block his attacks by swinging her bow to deflect the pair of blades. Thinking swiftly she blocked the blades and then dematerialised her bow stepping in between the blades where she channelled prana to her fists and landed crushing blows to her opponent. These strikes impacted on his suddenly bare chest and then bounced off due to the armoured clothing that materialised around his form. She was annoyed to realise that the damage from each of her strikes were nullified and that he was only knocked slightly off balance by her punches. Gritting her teeth she pulled more prana away from the ocean that was her master and channelled all of that prana into her next blow that struck the green glowing sigil on his chest causing him to go catapulting backwards into the next room.

She walked forward into the next room only to resummons her bow to block the longsword that lashed out at head height. Rolling with the momentum she stepped back and was forced to block the follow-up blows coming from each direction. The swordsmanship of the man, now once again wearing his red cloak, was impeccable and she was forced to move to block every swing constantly putting her on the defensive. Backing up she felt her back touch the wall and she got an overwhelming sense of danger from all sides. Forcing her body to move in a way that no human could she flung her body to the ground a few strands of hair being cut from three simultaneous directions. Channelling prana into her hands she obliterated the floor causing both of them to fall down to the floor below.

She fired several bolts of light at the descending servant and he barely managed to block it by summoning a rose petalled shield that shattered twice before he hit the ground. Landing on the ground the two faced each other weapons drawn.

The fighters halted in their combat stances and inspected the other, looking for any sign of weakness and finding the other devoid of them.

"I don't suppose we can just leave it here," the white-haired servant suggested.

"I'm going to be leaving your corpse here," Ishtar informed the servant casually.

The tension rose between the two as they readied there weapons.

Suddenly a roar shattered the silence and the entire building quaked and began to fall sideways.

xxx

Shirou was losing. He was also having fun while doing so. Normally these two things would be impossible or at least highly unusual but as he dodged another loop of chain that threatened to ensnare him he realised that despite all the hype that Gilgamesh had stirred up about his fight during the years this battle against the golden king may live up to it. He clenched his fists and much larger fists of ice appeared around the king before he melted them into puddles using a sword of flame that he pulled from the ripples.

In the king's other hand a sword appeared and he with one slash a beam that matched the one that destroyed the skyscraper earlier appeared. The magical energy was overwhelmingly powerful so Shirou elected to dodge instead of block, teleporting away the instant before the light encompassed him and firing three shots from his Desert Eagle at the back of Gilgamesh's head.

The servant half-turned and the bullets were struck down by lightning that emanated from the numerous golden discs that surrounded Gilgamesh. In a means of reply the Golden man sent a wave of his cheaper Noble Phantasm's at the magician. However none reached as with a clap icicles intercepted each one of the treasures knocking them off course. Shirou sent forward a poisonous mist and then had to dodge again as one of the axes decided to change its course for him. A sidestep and a quick punch encased the axe in ice causing it to fall to the floor.

Shirou turned back to notice that the form of Gilgamesh was gone. He quickly used [Poseidon's Eye] and lunged to the side to avoid a sword that nearly bisected him in two. Lashing out with waves of water revealed the location of Gilgamesh who appeared moments later holding some kind of dime store wizard's hat and looking visibly ignored at being soaked. Gilgamesh clicked his fingers and lightning appeared travelling towards Shirou who redirected it back at him using water with a high saline content.

The lightning impacted Gilgamesh's armour doing nothing to the magic resistant material. The servant shook his head and smiled breaking up the fight. "Come on Shirou," he said goading the magician. "Is there nothing more you can show me?"

"Not even close," Shirou replied smiling. "In fact you're making me want to go all out." He held up his hand. "Witness now Gilgamesh; behold my new spell with power on par with that of a Noble Phantasm." While normally Shirou would not be so dramatic he was immensely proud of this spell that he had only managed to create by combining his immense power and understanding over water and ice with the knowledge of magecraft he obtained from the Matou, the Einzbern and Sumire and his abilities as a magician.

"[Nidhoggr]," he said as he cut deep into his hand letting the blood drip down into the water of the ground. For a moment nothing happened and the night was still and silent but in the next moment the collective water of the erupted and coalesced taking the form of a massive fifteen metre tall dragon with two forearms and a long tail.

Water cooled and formed into scales and teeth and claws while the joints and muscles operated using hydraulic power. Poison dripped from its fangs and it turned two empty sockets towards the King of Heroes who stood there in silence.

His silence didn't last long as the King of Heroes clapped at the display. "It was okay," he said. "You can do better."

"Okay," Shirou spluttered visibly shuddering with rage. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to create even a semblance of life?"

"You would know better than me," Gilgamesh said smiling as if he had just heard a funny joke.

"Nidhoggr," Shirou said voice steady and calm. "Let's go beat some sense into Gilgamesh."

The dragon growled and crouched but their plan of regicide was put to a momentary halt as the stillness of the night was broken by a familiar roar that reverberated through Shirou's bones.

"Round two," Shirou said with determination turning to face the source that was busy extracting itself from the wreckage of a nearby building.

xxx

Arcueid and Shiki casually strolled into the atrium of the building. Two dead apostles stood guard but they were easily dispatched with a single thrust of the hand and a single stab. Shiki, now with his eyes fully on display then killed the elevator with a single stab and the two proceeded to go up to the first floor.

It was a massacre; countless vampires were cut down before they could speak. Shiki went ahead dispatching legions of vampires by with a single well placed thrust and any Dead Apostle that managed to dodge was immediately torn apart by Arcueid in the next instant.

Already the floor was covered in ash as Shiki and Arcueid continued there one sided massacre. Every door was filled with the dead or one or two vampires that were quickly dispatched. This pattern continued until they came to the fourth floor. The first door that they entered on the fourth floor was what seemed to be an empty salon. The next was an entertainment room with a home theatre that Arcueid briefly fussed over. The following was an arcade and the pattern continued.

Each room they came to was empty and some form of luxury entertainment and the pattern continued until the end. Shiki was about to open the door when Arcueid stopped him.

"Something is behind that door," she whispered in Shiki's ear. Without looking at her he nodded to show that he understood. He raised his knife and very carefully killed the lock.

Entering quickly into the room both of them took in the image of a room bare of human habitation. Then they both simultaneously spotted the cute white critter that lay in doggy basket watching cartoons. The big eared creature turned towards the two of them and started growling. The growl sounded cute rather than intimidating coming from the small dog shaped creature. This cuteness proved to be only temporary as the creature's body morphed doubling in size, its body packed on muscle and its eyes gained a vicious glint. The transformation was suddenly cut short as Arcueid strode forward and kicked the thing launching it through the window and down to the street below its eyes displaying a look of utter shock as it vanished from the room.

"Well that's cleared," Arcueid said making a motion of washing her hands.

"Do you think that was the correct thing to do?" Shiki questioned his master.

"Come on," Arcueid said. "The creature was obviously evil. It also had terrible taste in anime as well. Who even likes this stuff?"

Shiki shook his head and opened his mouth to respond only to be cut off by the sound of a roar from the street below. Shooting her a withering look he noticed Arcueid flush in embarrassment.

"My declaration of victory," she said looking a bit guilty. "It may have been a tad premature."

 **Author Note: Can you recognize all the Noble Phantasm's in this chapter. I hope the fight's didn't disappoint. I just realized that Arcueid literally kicked the dog this chapter.:)**

 **Next chapter should be up soon. Consider it part two of this chapter.**

 **Please read and review.**


	41. Take me way too long to think up

The rubble exploded blasted back by a wave of pure force that emanated from the White Beast of Gaia. It shook bits of concrete out of its fur and it stood up towering over the two duelling opponents his body enlarging to a size of twelve metres, even larger than their previous encounter. Drool dripped from its jowls and its muscles flexed as it stood up. Its purple eyes focused on the Shirou and glinted with malicious intent as he seemed to recognize the man who had escaped him once before.

He took a step forward and he was immediately bombarded by a multitude of weapons, most glancing off the beasts hide but one piercing deep into its eye. The beast recoiled and fixed a single harsh glare on the Golden King its one eye glinting with rage.

"How dare a mongrel like you ignore the king," Gilgamesh said. He turned to Shirou. "I believe in situations like this it is customary to team up against the invading party."

Shirou nodded. "You know calling somebody a mongrel really seems to suit you," he said. "You should do it more often."

Gilgamesh gave a noncommittal shrug before turning his attention to the, now two-eyed, beast charging him down. A wave of his hand and a silver ornate shield materialised over him. The beast stuck the shield causing massive cracks to ripple over its surface but it ultimately held.

While the beast was charging Shirou used another one of his trump cards that he had appropriated from the Magic Association so long ago. The crest of the Emiya family remained on his heart and it only took a simple application of the fourth for it to respond to him. His father had mentioned that without Avalon he could only use it to decrease his passage through time by a factor of two before his body started breaking down.

This was not a problem for Shirou's body. "[Time alter square accel]," he said causing the world around him to slow down. Sprinting forward he felt his muscles strain and his body start to feel the pressure. But he could easily handle this amount for now. He jumped onto the shield of Gilgamesh and then leapt off it and over the head of Primate Murder drawing his pistol and with a pair of deft shots blinding the beast entirely. He landed on his back and stomped multiple times in quick succession leaving explosive runes all over the surface before he back flipped off the creatures back and took off running down the street.

An explosion occurred behind him and he could feel the beast physically focus its hatred on him that manifested as a slight crushing pain throughout his body but would have likely killed a human instantly. He ducked quickly around the corner with the beast hot on his trail stepping onto another street. When the beast was only a few metres behind him he surged prana to his hands and clicked his fingers.

Shirou had done his research on the surrounding area and found something interesting. An abandoned sewer ran under a nearby street and like a lot of these sewers in Fuyuki it happened to be large enough for him to try something different. Therefore as soon as the gesture was complete, strategically placed portions of the road exploded causing both him and Primate Murder to go tumbling into the cold water below.

Turning swiftly around he watched the giant wolf drift gracefully down to the sewer floor. Its eyes were fully restored and it stared up at Shirou through the clear water as if daring him to try something like that again. Where before it caused fear inside him not it only provoked excitement in the young magician. Channelling more prana he bent the water around him to his will bringing countless slicing crushing and piercing attacks against the hide of this monster.

Each attack broke against the skin of the creature and even his eyes this time remained undamaged. The creature gave an amused malicious snarl at the red-headed magician but Shirou just laughed to himself. "It feels pretty good to fight against an opponent I don't have to worry about hurting," he said as massive hands of ice crushed formed and punched at the dog sending him stumbling back.

The beast leaped at Shirou who dodged and forced it down to the brick and stone of the sewer by summoning a whirlpool beneath its feet. Accelerating his time again he blasted towards the form of his opponent moving faster than any creature of the sea. At the last moment he summoned ice around his hands and lashing out at the beast manipulating the water in his blood, bones and muscles as well as the surrounding water and ice to increase the force of his punch to the extent that a single blow could have ruptured a battleship.

The beast recoiled at the blow and Shirou could feel something break beneath the hide of the beast. But it forced itself up and roared at Shirou emitting a pressure wave that Shirou had to negate lest it damage his organs. Shirou once again manipulated the water to apply crushing force on the mutt but he was barely slowed down for an instant.

"[Cut]," Shirou intoned getting serious as he applied his magic to the water turning the entire underground body into a field of needles. The charging beast was caught unawares and for the first time its hide was breached turning the water bloody. This was only a momentary victory as its hide regrew back almost instantly. The creatures forced itself through the field of blades that the water had become and charged Shirou even as its hide was being cut up. Shirou prepared himself to unleash more of his power when the beast was intercepted by Nidhoggr who Shirou had left behind at the start of the fight. The beast dove into the water intercepting the White Beast of Gaia easily and driving its poisoned fangs into the beasts shoulder.

Primate Murder swiped at the beast with immense force causing the water nearby them to boil and the ice dragon to be cut in two. The creature turned back to Shirou and then he was struck by Nidhoggr again, the beast's tail cutting its throat. Infuriated Primate Murder lunged towards Shirou's creation and started tearing it into pieces ignoring Shirou's half-hearted attacks as he watched how his dragon would fare against humanities greatest enemy.

It would fare poorly it turned out. The dragon's teeth were able to pierce the beasts hide but the poison wasn't enough to actually put it down. On the other side any damage done to it by Primate Murder was immediately regenerated by the surrounding water. Shirou sighed in acknowledgement. His magic was the only thing that could put this monster down. He refocused his thoughts upon the beast and analysed it trying to think of a method to bring the thing down.

His thoughts were interrupted by a hail of blades piercing the hide of the beast. "You were going to use this trap on me," the voice of Gilgamesh said from behind him. "You always seemed to like dragging people down to your level and drowning them there."

Shirou turned to see Gilgamesh riding… "Wait what is that," Shirou said in utter confusion. The contraption he was riding looked to be some sort of submersible. It was gold with blue streaks along its fins and it had a bubble shape with fins and a glass cockpit in which Gilgamesh sat. The entirety of the contraption was covered in cuneiform runes that glowed.

"It's a Mesopotamian submarine," Gilgamesh said his voice travelling clearly through the water.

"No Gilgamesh," Shirou said angrily. "I can accept your ability to possess countless objects that may have existed or been imagined by humans. It's a clear effect that would be inscribed into your legend as a person who has the concept of [obtained everything in the world] etched upon your soul. What I cannot accept was that they had submarines in Babylon."

Gilgamesh just shrugged as his craft barely dodged an outstretched paw of the giant wolf. Moving his submarine in a zig-zag fashion he fired weapons that exploded on the skin of the wolf but failed to harm it.

"Can you hold it down?" he asked Shirou. "I've got something that might be able to terminate it if you can hold it down."

Shirou nodded his head. "Nidhoggr, entangle," he commanded his dragon. The dragon did as he commanded latching onto the beast before being shrugged to pieces. Then Shirou used his trump card mentally commanding the dragon to grow causing it to absorb the nearby water and freezing the beast to its body. The beast went berserk and it too started to visibly grow in front of Shirou's eyes. Thrashing at the ice dragon it finally had enough sending out a wave of mana that obliterated the dragon to pieces. It turned its head towards Shirou and loomed menacingly at the magician who just raised his hands and returned the beasts glare.

Suddenly Shirou felt a ripple in the water and felt something descending at a great speed towards the dog. Looking up quickly he noticed it was a massive sword that was taller than any of the skyscrapers. The beast noticed it as well and it attempted to move but Shirou generating immense amounts of his prana and channelling it all into his glove managed to hold the beast still for the scant few seconds that were required for the sword to come crashing down on the beast.

Gilgamesh and Shirou however were smart enough not to look away from the impact and it paid off as in the next moment a gigantic paw smashed into the submarine of Gilgamesh reducing it into rubble. The very next instant a wave of pressure sent Shirou into the side of the sewer. Quickly regaining his senses Shirou was astounded to see the beast reforming from damaged parts. Meat was physically stitching itself together and its halves re-joined where they had split.

"That is the third-toughest beast I've ever fought in my life," Gilgamesh said, his 'submarine' damaged but still functional. "And it's really going for that second ranking."

"What about first," Shirou said knowing quite well what the first ranking would be.

"Not even close." Gilgamesh said dismissively.

The beast was now thirty metres tall and its head stood above the water level. It turned towards the two with no emotion in its eyes. While previously it had displayed hatred and malice now its expression now showed no emotion at all. A thrust so fast that Shirou didn't feel any ripples in the water obliterated Gilgamesh's submarine. Shirou didn't have any time to worry about his friend because in the following instant the beast opened its mouth and roared and a wave of ripples came at him destroying the mana in the air as it went.

Shirou didn't have any inclination to hold back or play any longer. "[Amessunu Istenis]," he invoked drawing out massive amounts of prana and firing it directly at the beast. The two attacks met in mid-air, one that spoke of a death that killed everything in its way and one that symbolized the icy hell at the bottom of the ocean.

Neither attack triumphed over the other. As Shirou's attack crushed the beasts by summoning the ancestral memories of the abyss, the beasts attack killed Shirou's by drawing on the mortality inherent in the universe. Shirou could feel the reality of the world start to creak as the two attacks met both of them vying for dominance. What happened next the young magician would never know as he was saved by a literal deus ex machina, or would that be a dea ex machina.

A titanic hoof came crushing down on the White Wolf of Gaia's head at the same time as Shirou felt another chunk of prana leave him. This had two immediate effects. With the beasts mouth closed the howl of death had nowhere to go and the second was that Shirou's attack was no longer opposed. The terror of humanities head split like a ripe grape as the two attacks impacted on either side of its head.

The next second Ishtar swam down next to him. She looked slightly tired but it was honestly hard to tell with servants as they did not need necessities like air. She glanced at him and then turned back to face the form of Primate Murder. Despite all logic the body of the creature was rising again and a canine skull appeared followed by two purple orbs that stared at the two. Suddenly Shirou felt ripples at his side and he turned to see the form of Gilgamesh standing next to him. The beast scrutinized the three and then with one almighty leap it jumped straight out of the sewers and into the night.

Shirou turned right to look at Gilgamesh and he found him staring at Ishtar. The goddess returned the stare and after a few moments Gilgamesh left as well, simply rising out of the water and into the sky.

The remaining master-servant combo shared a look and then swam up into the open air. "That was pretty intense," Shirou said his lips curving into a slight smile as he contemplated the fight."

"Hey Shirou," Ishtar said looking at him. "Was that really a Mesopotamian submarine I saw?"

Shirou's frustrated cry rang out through the night.

xxx

Rin watched another room go down in flames from one breath of the dragon girl. For all her diminutive appearance she had the feeling that this berserker would actually be a nightmare to fight. The strategy that they came up with to invade was simple. Saber would go first as he was both resistant to magical and physical weapons. If the room was full of dead he would step back and allow Berserker to torch the entire room. If the room had only one or two enemies then he and Aoko would both step in and wipe them out. So far she had felt like a fifth wheel as she went along. She had stocked up on a huge amount of gems but had been advised by both Aoko and Shirou not to waste them until absolutely necessary.

They had just cleared out another room of the dead when they heard footsteps in the passageway. Stepping from around the corner stood a woman holding a wineglass. Her hair and eyes were matching scarlet and she wore the fashionable and trendy clothing of a high-class lady. Her high cheekbones and aristocratic features combined with the later gave her the feeling of an upper-class noble.

"How interesting," she said. "It appears we are being invaded." She took another sip from her glass and Rin realised that it was blood she was drinking."

"Rita Rozay-en," Aoko said as a warning for Rin. "The number fifteen Dead Apostle Ancestor."

"Aoko Aozaki,"the lady replied. "The fifth magician. I've heard you are a rather wild and vulgar person."

Still the vampire made no move to attack or even showed any signs of worry. She moved to take another sip from her glass.

Instantly magic bullets were fired at the woman in an uncountable number by Aoko. Rin flinched in surprise expecting to see the woman reduced to paste and rebuked herself for expecting it to be so easy when a dome made of blood surrounded the woman. Instantly a woman appeared alongside the vampire. She had white hair and a black mask and Rin found herself blushing as she took in what she wore. It was like some BDSM dress with red outer layering and high boots. But she wasn't her type. Not that she liked woman at all. No, she strictly liked guys.

The woman raised her staff sending bolts of magic flying towards them but Gawain stepped in front and the bolts dissipated as they hit his armour.

"Might as well use your Noble Phantasm," Rita said nonchalantly.

At this her servant immediately summoned what looked to be like an iron maiden covered in blood. Just looking at the thing gave Rin chills and she noticed that as soon as it was out Mist began to cover the room. "Master what target should I use it on," the woman said her voice sounding mechanical and devoid of life.

"Just kill the magician," Rita said.

The servant nodded and the iron maiden disappeared. Rin watched as Aoko dodged out of the way and avoided the torture device.

"Saber kill her," Rin instructed as she saw Aoko dodge once again to the left avoiding the trap. She watched as the magician's servant blasted the Iron Maiden with her concentrated flames causing it to melt before her eyes and the blood to splatter all over.

Gawain was at the Dead Apostle Ancestors servant in a moment slicing straight through her with very little resistance when the tides suddenly turned. A scream of pain was all that Rin heard and she turned back to the dragon lady clutching her stomach as she was stabbed through by a young girl with white hair and carrying large knives. "A second servant," the thought flashed through her head and she felt the girl turn her attention towards her. She vaguely noticed the Magician next to her convulse in pain.

"Do you know that if you time it correctly you can get two servants," the red-haired vampire said haughtily. "It doesn't work for catalyst summoning but if you use simultaneous circles you can pull it off." She scowled at the fading pieces of her dead servant. "Unfortunately sometimes you will not get a servant you particularly like." She raised her hand and a rapier of blood appeared in time for her to parry the blows of her servant. "On the other hand Jack's a real sweetheart," she said causing the other girl to blush.

"What did you do to me," Aoko ground out as she tried to stand up and collapsed to her knees.

"You just got a little blood on you from the coffin," she said and smiled wickedly. "You ought to be careful about playing with other people's blood," she continued. "You never know what you might catch," she said still fighting against the swordsmanship of Gawain. "Like a bit of death," she said flexing her prana causing the Magician to scream.

A second later she was back on the defensive against Saber. "That should have killed you," she said. "Jack finish her off."

The white haired girl nodded and leapt towards the downed magician only to be forced to dodge a fireball. Beserker stood bleeding and wounded but with fire in her eyes. "I'm not going to let you take a step towards my master," she said.

The assassin shifted holding up her blades only to be forced to dodge as an explosion of flame obliterated the spot that she was standing in. Rin stood holding up one of her gems that now sat useless in her hand. She discarded it immediately and drew another. "Gawain," she said. "Do whatever you have to swiftly win," she raised up her hand and one of her command seals faded.

Gawain nodded in acknowledgement as he felt his stats increase. He swung with more force trying to physically overpower his foe but the vampire proved to tricky moving backwards at a speed and dodging all of his blows by a hairs-breath. Meanwhile Rin and Berserker were having a harder time. Neither of them were primarily close ranged fighters and they were in a narrow corridor fighting against an Assassin and protecting a downed comrade. Fire from Berserker and all the elements from Rin managed to keep Jack away but they were still making no progress on taking down the child. She was simply too fast for their attacks and it was specifically hard to track her in the misty corridor.

Rin cast a family spell using her crest that coated the floor in a sticky substance. This briefly caused the girl assassin to get stuck and she was blasted by Aoko's servant in the next second the flames burning half her body. She retreated and disappeared into the mist putting both Rin and Berserker on high alert. The next second they heard a noise above them and they looked up to see the girl using the roof as a platform leap over their heads.

Turning around briefly in horror they noticed her going for Aoko who was now standing up unsteadily. Berserker looked in horror and then lunged to intercept. However her hands were just a bit too slow to grab onto the child. As the assassin lunged for the magician there was a flare of prana. "Berserker, help me," Aoko said raising her hand containing the command seals just as one disappeared.

The dragon girl appeared in front of Aoko intercepting the blow that was heading for her. Rin was momentarily horror struck as the knives stabbed into Berserker instead. In response to the stabbing Berserker unleashed a wave of flames that charred the girl and caused her to go stumbling back, right into a beam fired from Rin's gems. The assassin was flung through the walls and the room and all the way out of the building where she presumably fell to her death.

"I wanted to show you my dragon form," Rin turned back to see the figure of the dragon girl on the fading away. "You were going to be so impressed." She smiled and raised her hand but she was noticeably fading away as she did so and there were tears on her face.

"Come on Kiyohime," Aoko said grabbing the fading dragon lady in her hands. "You can get better. Come on Survive!" She yelled the last part.

"Use a command seal," Rin yelled out dashing towards the two.

Aoko momentarily floundered but then she caught herself. "By the power of this command seal 'live Kiyohime'."

The servant gasped as she felt the prana healing her. Slowly the fading stopped and she appeared to be getting even healthier. Aoko smiled down at her and Kiyohime blushed. Then the three of them all turned towards their last remaining foe.

Rita Rozay-en was visibly panting as she blocked the strikes of Gawain. Disengaging she surveyed the situation. "I believe there is very little chance for victory remaining," she said out loud. "But perhaps I can escape to fight another day."

"Personally I find that equally unlikely," a male voice came from behind her and she turned to see another servant and the White Princess cutting off her exit.

"I see," she said. "This is my curtain call." As she said that she recalled the events of the last few days prior.

xxx

" _I won't be able to keep my promise Rita," her friend Sumire said._

 _Looking up sharply she examined the face of her companion and occasional lover. She was still clad in that bikini that she wore everywhere but her face had an uncharacteristic seriousness to it and she was for once in her existence stone-cold sober._

" _Really," Rita said looking at her only friend in the world. "What could possibly make you want to break your promise?"_

" _I have an apprentice," Sumire said proudly._

" _And you want to stick around to teach them," Rita said and immediately dismissed it. "No, I understand what you want."_

 _She took another sip of the blood. "I hope that I get to see your apprentice before the end of the war."_

" _Why you don't think she will make it?" Sumire inquired. "Or you don't think you will?_

 _Rita shrugged the motion looking unusual on for her aristocratic looks._

" _Goodbye Sumire," she said warmth and sadness both showing in her tone._

" _Goodbye Rita," Sumire said favouring her with a smile before she turned around and left._

xxx

"It seemed that I don't have much time left to 'live'! She said and put extra emphasis on the word live as a massive surge of prana enveloped her. Those watching eyed her warily but as the prana expenditure died down each observed her on her knees and gasping for breath.

"Well come on," Rita said to those surrounding her. "Let's not keep the devil waiting."

xxx

The tiny assassin felt tears run down her eyes as she escaped the building. She was on the brink of death when she heard her mother's words instructing her to survive. She wanted to go back there and stab, stab, stab all those who dared to take her mother away but her mother's last instruction forced her away from that place.

She suddenly felt two figures block her path. Instantly she noticed that one was a servant but the one that took up most of her attention was a small blonde girl.

"I can help you avenge your mother," the girl said holding out her hand dangling that tempting offer in front of the young servant. "All you have to do is join me."

After a moment's thought the young girl took the offered hand and felt herself refill with prana.

"Excellent," her new Master said. "I believe we're going to be the best of friends.

 **Author Note: Uploading this before work. No time for long Author note.**


	42. The meaning of life

Kiyohime bounded around the room showing her current health. "And then my master was crying over my body," the dragon lady said. "She told me that I had to survive. It was so romantic."

"I'm glad being stabbed twice put you in such a great mood," Aoko said to her servant as she sat on the couch but her smile took all the bite out of her words. "Man who knew Command Seals are so powerful?" she said shaking her head.

"They are meant to be absolute orders to be imposed on the servants," Rin piped up showing her knowledge of the Grail War. "Isn't it obvious that trump cards would be powerful enough to change the course of the battle?" She then turned to her servant. "I was surprised that it wasn't enough to enable you to defeat the Ancestor by yourself."

Her servant looked very apologetic. "I'm sorry, my lady. Despite her seeming frailty the woman I fought was stronger than me at that time. I do not know what she did but I felt myself slow and I was unable to overpower her even with the command seals."

They fell silent at that. Then Shirou stood up from the lounge chair that he had forbidden anybody else from touching. "Saber," he said. "I'm going to try something. Tell me if the feeling feels familiar."

The knight glanced at his master and when she didn't present any complaints he nodded his head. Shirou immediately waved his hand and the servant felt heaviness set in under his skin. A familiar heaviness he realised, one that he had felt a few hours ago.

"That is very familiar," the servant replied. "It feels like it did when I fought her."

"Blood manipulation," Shirou said. "It must have been very strong to be able to slow down the servant. You two masters are lucky she didn't hit you with that it would have probably outright killed you."

Aoko and Rin both nodded to that, Aoko having experienced the pain of blood manipulation and Rin having seen it.

"I think we're overlooking something they said Master," his servant Ishtar said stretching the word Master sensuously. "They were conversing for some length about how Command Seals are trump cards and therefore valuable. Why don't you tell them what you used your trump card on?"

Shirou took a sip from his tea that Nine had provided but neither spoke nor prevented Ishtar from speaking. Seeing he was saying nothing Ishtar continued.

"My master when he first met me was struck by my overwhelming beauty and carnality. Thus soon after making my acquaintance he commanded me to seal off my beauty." All eyes in the room turned towards Shirou expecting him to deny this or at least defend himself and were surprised when he just calmly continued to sip his tea.

"Wait a minute," Rin cried out stunned. "You're still beautiful now. What did you look like before?" She noticed Shirou looking quite strangely at her. "What?" she asked defensively.

Shirou just shook his head. "You are going to have a really difficult time continuing the Tohsaka line, aren't you? He said. "Anyway," he continued ignoring Rin's spluttered denials. "I wouldn't have a problem with the skill if you didn't keep trying to use it on me."

"So my little brother is weak against seduction techniques then," Aoko piped up causing Shirou to spit out his tea.

"Changing the subject," Shirou said decisively ignoring the looks of the room. "Have any of you recalled any details about the second assassin yet."

"I haven't," Rin admitted. "I know I was fighting somebody and that Berserker got stabbed and we won but I cannot remember the specifics of how they fought or what they looked like."

"I have no extra knowledge than my master," Saber said.

"I'm pretty sure that none of us remember anything more than the bare details about the servant," Aoko said. "Do you suspect that the servant will cause trouble in the future?"

"Almost certainly," Shirou said immediately drawing the attention of the room. Nine placed another cup of tea in front of him and he took a sip while formulating his response. "There is no curse on you. That means that the ability to forget the appearance of the assailant is inherent to the servant and it naturally would dissipate upon their death."

"Do you have any ideas of how to identify the name or nature of this servant," Shirou's servant asked him.

"It was Jack the Ripper," Shirou said immediately.

"How do you know that," Rin asked annoyed that Shirou could know the name of the servant without even meeting them where she had met them and been forced to forget.

"I had scanned the wound of Aoko's servant when I first met her," Shirou explained. "It was caused by a knife called Maria the Ripper. I simply put two and two together." Shirou put down his cup and regarded the room for a moment. "I must warn you this knife could do quite a bit of damage if it is used against a female and the area is misty. It is not enough to kill my own servant, and it probably wouldn't scratch Arcueid," he said gesturing to the True Ancestor who had spent the last ten minutes devouring the chocolate chip cookies that had been provided by his servant. "But the rest of you should be wary."

Shirou put down his cup. "Well done everybody on tonight, one down six more to go. I have to go check up on something; Rin Nine will show you to your room. You are not walking home at this time of night."

xxx

Shirou stepped into Satsuki's room. While he did not outwardly show it, inside he was incredibly concerned about the condition of his friend. He took in the status of the injured party in a few seconds. One of the benefits of the fourth was that he had the ability to diagnose injury and disease superior to even the best doctors. The downside was that he did not gain the requisite knowledge to fix those difficulties. While he had expanded his repertoire to include some basic healing, the ability to fix an inhuman mind after damage was done to their reality marble was something that nobody would ever call basic.

Sighing he decided to wake her up. If she was having any problems he could better handle it if she was awake and could tell him what was erroneous with her body and mind. He conjured some ice-cold water over her head and then thought better of it and gently shook her awake. She rolled over and tried to fend him off but he was persistent and eventually she managed to struggle awake.

"Good morning Satsuki," Shirou said cheerfully. It was technically morning at two 'o clock but he had a feeling that the young woman would not see it that way. "How are you feeling?"

The woman concentrated on the question for a moment. "I actually feel fine," she said running her fingers over her body. "I feel better than usual actually."

"Good," Shirou said. "Then I can perform this demonstration." As he spoke a glob of water materialised and impacted on the chest of Satsuki knocking her back onto the bed.

"What the hell Shirou," she said as she sat up straight glaring at the magician.

"Before you went to sleep that kind of attack would have penetrated straight through you," Shirou said causing Satsuki to stop and glance down at the point of impact. "In fact when I saw you I had the urge to tell Arcueid that she had gained a sister."

"You mean I…" Satsuki begun only to get stopped mid-sentence by Shirou.

"I meant that at first glance by and observant viewer you would be mistaken for a True Ancestor," Shirou said. "While your body is similar there are enough differences that you would not be considered one."

"What differences," Satsuki said giving Shirou her full attention.

"No good ones," Shirou replied instantly, bursting Satsuki's bubble. "Can you feel a specific pressure around you?"

Satsuki concentrated for a moment. "No," she said after a while. "I can't feel anything specific. But this body is new and I may not just recognize it."

Shirou nodded. "Anyway if I have to guess, I would say that your body is more akin to that of a lunarian than that of a True Ancestor. Therefore there will be no Marble Phantasm for you." Shirou smiled. "I find it quite strange to think that out of the tiny bit of Dead Apostle blood there was still enough to…" Shirou's voice trailed off and Satsuki watched as his eyes widened and his mouth remained open.

"Shirou," she said after a minute shaking his shoulder and causing him to waken from his stupor.

"I've just realized something horrifying," Shirou said in a flat voice. "Anyway," he said cutting off Satsuki's questioning. "Do you want to show me your Reality Marble."

Satsuki nodded determinedly and closed her eyes. She built up prana within her and reached deep inside for the image that she saw in her soul and after just a moment she released it.

A minute later she opened her eyes to see Shirou who was ankle deep in water giving her a deadpan look.

"I need more practice, okay," she said in response to Shirou's judging look.

"I was not disputing that," Shirou said examining the fluid. "Do you mind if I study this fluid," Shirou said. At her nodded assent he pulled out a vial and filled it full of the liquid.

"Tell me what you find out about the substance," Satsuki said to Shirou.

"Will do," Shirou said turning to walk out of the room. "If you need any help figuring out your reality marble you can ask Nine. If you need any help figuring out your new body do some kata's. Do not try sparring with anybody yet."

With those last words of wisdom Shirou clicked his fingers causing all the water from Satsuki's Reality Marble to form into blocks and freeze. He then left the room.

xxx

"What an interesting predicament," Ishtar said to Shirou as they left the room. "Those guys that you call Lunarianns were tough," she said with a nostalgic look on her face as she floated besides him. "By the way wasn't that name from Final Fantasy."

"Is it," Shirou asked. "I know they use the name in the Touhou games, but it is actually a generic name for a fictional species that hypothetically lives on the moon."

"Huh," Ishtar said. "I also noticed you didn't inform the girl of the reason for the possible pressure."

Shirou nodded solemnly. "Being rejected by the world cannot be a nice feeling," he said. "The pressure will either break her or turn her into a crystal."

"Don't you mean diamond," Ishtar said.

"Nah," Shirou said placing his hands in his pockets. "Did I ever tell you about the time that ORT nearly killed both Nine and I."

"As fascinating as that story sounds," Ishtar said. "I can't help but remembering something I heard earlier in the evening. You know what I am speaking of, something about you being weak to seduction techniques."

"Ishtar stop," Shirou said with a note of warning in his voice.

"I may not be able to hold myself back for too much longer Shirou," the goddess said seductively leaning in closer causing Shirou's breath to quicken. "I've figured out why you don't want to copulate," she said her voice taking on a much more normal tone.

"Most attempts to psychoanalyse me fail Ishtar," Shirou said impassively. "You may try, but you certainly won't succeed."

"You're afraid of getting attached," Ishtar said looking at Shirou's blank face. "You know that if you sleep with me you will fall in love. It's a terribly human thing to do isn't it?" she said but there was no scorn in her voice. "You don't want to go through the pain of my death if I were to expire in this tournament or the pain if we win and I leave." The Magician paused and turned towards his servant scrutinizing her. "In addition you may have to sacrifice me to save one of your living friends," she said offhandedly. "You'll do it simply because the lives of the living outweigh my temporary existence." She gave a fragile smile. "And you would hate yourself for that."

"You presume a lot goddess," Shirou said his voice containing no emotion at all.

"I do Shirou," the goddess said. "I know you. I've known you for a long time."

"And if this is true," Shirou said. "If you somehow have me pegged and know exactly what my reasons were for not engaging in lovemaking with you were. Would you respect them?"

"Of course not," Ishtar said immediately subtly enjoying the rare look of astonishment that came over the magicians face. "After all I'm a selfish goddess and I cannot help but show my love." She then smiled beatifically and wrapped her arms around Shirou brining their bodies close together.

The sound of footsteps approached and Arcueid popped up next to them. "Hey Ishtar," she whispered to the goddess. "Are we implementing the plan now," she said.

"Not yet Arcueid," the goddess said releasing Shirou who had to take deep breaths to get his arousal under control. "Stay ready," she whispered back.

"You know I can hear you," Shirou said.

"We know," Arcueid and Ishtar answered simultaneously causing Shirou to shiver at how in sync they were.

"Nine," Shirou said. "Guard my bedchamber tonight."

"At once Master Shirou," his servant said appearing next to him.

"Well I would honestly love to chat with you for a bit but I am honestly bone-tired. That dog really did a number on me," he said yawning. "Good night."

As he said that Shirou disappeared from the corridor.

"You're not really going to keep us out of Shirou's room Nine," Arcueid asked the butler giving him and imploring look.

"While I would love to guard Master Inke's sleeping area," Nine started. "I unfortunately have a prior appointment to help Lady Satsuki with her Reality Marble." The butler winked. "Have fun," he said as he walked off in the opposite direction to Shirou's room ignoring the thumbs up that Arcueid gave to Ishtar.

xxx

 _Two people stood in a temple. The first one Shirou recognized immediately as his servant. She had her arms crossed over her chest in a defensive posture. The second was the man he had seen so many times before. Unlike the previous times where he had displayed exasperation, amusement or empathy now his aura radiated rage._

" _Let it go Inanna," he said his voice heavy and controlled with an undercurrent of wrath._

" _He disrespected me," the goddess bit out. "You saw that didn't you. You know that if they lose respect for the gods they might decide that they don't need us anymore. You know what will happen then."_

" _Well maybe they wouldn't lose respect for us if you didn't give your all to make sure that they are all wiped out. I still cannot believe that you unleashed that thing. I taught you better Inanna."_

" _It was my right," the goddess insisted. "We can't let humans ignore us and oppose us as they wish. It is even worse if it is that human who decides that we are redundant." She stood up and looked the god in the eye. "In fact I'm starting to think that you were partly to blame for his death. Did you or did you not help Gilgamesh?"_

" _This is not about me," the man insisted stepping forward and facing the woman eye-to-eye. "This is about you not caring for anybody but yourself. You never think about the ramifications of your acts."_

 _For a moment Shirou thought he saw genuine hurt in Ishtar's eyes. "And your way is any better," she hurling the accusation at the other god. "If you had your way you would have the gods serve the humans."_

" _I don't believe that," the other god said shaking his head. "Not everything is about hierarchy Inanna. Please dampen your damn pride and forgive him."_

 _The goddess looked genuinely torn and for a few moments Shirou thought she might listen, but then she slowly shook her head sealing off that possibility._

" _Then this is a parting of the ways Ishtar," the male god said his voice flat as he turned around and walked away from Shirou's servant._

 _A look of sorrow crossed over Ishtar's face but she quickly schooled it into an impassive mask._

" _Goodbye, Ea," she said. But the god didn't even turn around._

 **Author Note: If anybody wants me to post a character sheet for any of the servants just tell me. One thing that you may have noticed is that Ishtar is a bit stronger due to not being in Rin's body. Sorry Rin no matter how many squats you do you can't exactly match a divine body. This chapter took me way too long to complete.**

 **Gilgamesh King of Mongrels: It has been used and will be used again. Just not for every fight.**

 **Polar Wolfstar The Rupture: Yup Manaka Sayjou.**

 **Axel Fones: You made my day. It's quite nice to hear somebody enjoys your story**

 **Please Read and review**


	43. The full moon pt1

The sun had not reached its zenith when Shirou was awoken by a fidgeting body on his left arm. He opened his eyes to see a fidgeting Arcueid wide awake. A body on his right arm indicated that the other goddess lay at his other side. A quick glance confirmed that she was also awake but she remained quiet and merely examined him.

Shirou sighed. "Why are you so restless today," he asked the True Ancestor.

"Oh," Arcueid took notice of him. "It's that time of the month Shirou."

Shirou could physically feel Ishtar's amused smirk at Arc's innocent statement. However in all the time that he knew her, the White Princess never failed to be energetic when the moon achieved its fullness.

"Three days of full moon," Shirou said to himself. He had already figured out the purpose of the Aylesbury ritual and he was very aware that the vampires would be aiming for the completion of the ritual by the third night. He teleported out of bed, donning some of his clothes, and walked towards the door before he was halted by the sound of his servant's voice.

"Wait Master," Ishtar said her clothes materialising over her naked form. "Why don't we take the day off? I don't think I've even got to explore Japan at all during my time here."

"We don't have that much time Ishtar," Shirou said defending his actions. "Death is our constant companion throughout this war. Any bit of preparation that I do would improve our odds."

"But you overwork yourself Shirou," Arc countered as she drew her sweater over her head. "Besides this might be the last time we get to do this."

"Arc don't say th…" Shirou began.

"I'm not foolish Shirou," Arc said smiling. "All of us could die here. Furthermore Ishtar would naturally fade away at the end of the Holy Grail War. Unless you have conjured up a method to keep her around."

Shirou bit his lip and then turned to face the goddess. "If you were a normal heroic spirit I could. Hell I could do that to somebody as powerful as Gilgamesh," he said not missing the look of disdain at the mention of her least favourite mortal. "But the system for Gods to survive does not exist in this day and age. While my command seals currently anchor your existence, when the grail war ends life will become unsustainable for gods." He shook his head. "I'm sorry," he said with his voice dripping bitterness. "But to keep you alive after the grail war I would have to somehow bring back the age of the gods."

Ishtar nodded. "I know," she said. "And you wouldn't bring back the age of the gods anyway even if you had the power." She held up a hand halting any reply. "That is not an accusation. Most gods were poison to mankind. To bring back those times would be a deep betrayal of the human race."

The silence stretched on for a few seconds until it was characteristically broken by the pair's favourite vampire.

"Fun day now," Arcueid said her voice brooking no disagreement. "We are going out to the arcade and the movies and the pool and anyplace else that Ishtar wants to go." The ancestor crossed her arms and Shirou uncharacteristically discovered he could raise no objection. He felt himself weighed down by the possibility of imminent demise the next few days promised and for the first time in a long while he wished that he could just leave the fight. Unfortunately now that he knew how much damage the ritual would do if completed he found himself trapped by his very nature. He opened his mouth and then closed it.

"Arcueid," he said. "Let's make this the best day ever."

xxx

The three of them sat around the table eating their respective breakfasts. According to Nine, who was playing their chef and waiter, Rin had not come down yet, Satsuki was about the house and Aoko had left the house. Sure enough during their planning of the day Satsuki wandered in.

"Morning guys," she said yawning. "Shirou did you analyse the liquid that I gave you."

"Yup," Shirou said pulling out a vial. "Drink up," he continued chucking the vial to her.

"Is it safe," Satsuki said looking at the clear vial with interest and a bit of apprehension.

"For you it is," Shirou replied. "The closest descriptor I could give it is primordial soup. It breaks down anything it touches but preserves the DNA. To others it is akin to an acid but for you." He smiled. "Well just try it."

Satsuki scrutinised his features and then in one swift motion gulped down the liquid. Her eyes widened and her body shook as she absorbed the contents. "What was that," she said staring at Shirou with wide eyes. "It feels like I know how your body works. I mean how it is put together."

"You absorbed the DNA that I inserted in the glass," Shirou said. "Blood," he clarified immediately upon seeing her reaction. "Now try to assume my form."

Satsuki concentrated for a moment and those sitting around her in the table looked expectantly at her. After a moment she sighed. "I haven't got it yet," she admitted. "Guess it's more training with Nine for me."

"Do you want to join us for a day out?" Shirou asked. Under most circumstances he would just take Arcueid and Ishtar, the two people he was 'involved' with to avoid awkwardness. However Satsuki was a friend and had been for a while and he wanted to spend some time with her… just in case.

"Nah," Satsuki said. "A bit more training for me. Then I'm going to have a nap." Her face suddenly turned serious. "Tonight is the night I'm going to confront Sumire again," she said.

"Good luck with that," Arcueid said with Rider nodding in agreement.

"Yeah good luck Satsuki," Shirou said and watched as the girl went back to her training.

xxx

"So which kind of movie do you want to watch," Shirou asked Ishtar following the unspoken rule of visitor gets to choose.

"Master," Ishtar responded dryly. "I have never watched a movie before. I have no frame of reference to decide what is good or not."

"You will love a lot of the foreign love films," Arcueid said looping her arm over the goddesses shoulder. "I'm sure you will enjoy them."

"Especially since the grail gave you the ability to understand all languages," Shirou said smiling. "Imagine if you were summoned only knowing ancient Babylonian," he joked.

"Shirou, nobody knows ancient Babylonian," the goddess said staring him in the face. "The language was fissured a long time ago."

At seeing her master's blank look she shook her head. "Ignore me," she said. "It would take too long to explain the intricacies of Sumerian history right now. I will watch Arcueid's choice."

"To the romance movie," Arcueid yelled wrapping her strong grip around the Magician's arm and dragging him into the theatre.

The goddess watched them go and a flash of pain ran through her eyes before she smiled and followed them in.

xxx

The three of them sat in a nice restaurant at the conclusion of the flick ruminating on the movie they had just seen. The restaurant was new and catered to those with a passion for Italian foods. It was quite frankly a compromise. Shirou refused to eat Arcueid's suggestion of Chinese food out of misbegotten cultural pride. Arcueid had grown tired of Shirou's love for Japanese food. Neither of them had any idea of how to even start looking for a restaurant that served Babylonian cuisine like Ishtar wanted. The Italian was a compromise and all of them were pinned to the table by their stubbornness.

"I don't get what the point of the movie was," the goddess spoke up first. "They both loved each other. They both knew it. Why didn't they just…? "She said showing visible signs of annoyance. "Why didn't they just fuck? The movie would have been at most half an hour and we could have actually got to the good stuff. Instead we get two hours of some outlandish on and off monkeyshines and then just after they finally confess their love the movie ends."

Arcueid pouted into her cannelloni and refused to answer. Truth be told she had not found it the best movie either but she would be damned if she let Shirou hear her say that and give him more ammunition. Fortunately the magician had a different target.

"Monkeyshines," Shirou said amusedly. "Really are we American now. Do they even say that any more there? Ya know over the pond."

"What happened to being grateful I could speak any language at all," the Babylonian goddess said defensively.

"Nothing," Shirou said putting up his hands. "I'm just imagining some old American magus posting Monkeyshines onto the grail's dictionary."

Shaking his head to dispel the image Shirou tucked into his lasagne as he listened to Arcueid and Ishtar discuss the movie further. When the three of them had finished they left to the arcade.

"So let me get this straight," Ishtar said staring at the arcade sign. "These games are like simulated worlds that you interact with through a few buttons to achieve an objective."

Shirou and Arcueid nodded simultaneously.

"That sounds pretty amazing," Ishtar admitted. "Do you have any games where you build up a civilisation and wage war on your enemies?"

"At home I do," Shirou admitted. "I rather enjoy playing them now and again. The games you would find at the arcade would be faster paced and designed more towards taking money from the customers."

"Humans always chasing after more and more wealth," Ishtar said. "It's one of the things I hate about the species."

"If I chose to write all the things I dislike about the gods," a voice made itself known. "Several libraries would be filled by the collection of my thoughts."

The trio turned to see the King of Heroes standing next to a black haired boy that only Arcueid recognized. "Merem," Arcueid said ignoring the looks of hatred between the king and the god while Shirou frantically looked between the two of them with a look of horror on his face. "What are you doing here?"

Merem laughed. "My companion over here was just showing me his conquests at the arcade. I haven't been to one of these in far too long. My reflexes were a bit rusty."

"Shirou," Gilgamesh said breaking contact with the hateful stare of his fellow servant. "Come speak to me privately for a while."

"Don't go with him Shirou," his servant next to him piped up. "He can't be trusted."

Gilgamesh opened his mouth to retort but was forestalled by Shirou who placed a hand on Ishtar's shoulder. "You and I both know he won't do that," Shirou said gazing into the eyes of the Babylonian goddess. "Just wait I'll be back soon and then we can go to the arcade together."

Gilgamesh nodded and he sent one last look at Ishtar that promised pain in the future before he walked off with Shirou following close behind him.

"Wow," Merem said. "What did you do to make him hate you so badly?"

"You know that's he's Gilgamesh Merem," Arcueid said while Rider continued to stare at the backs of the retreating men. "Let me introduce you to Ishtar."

"I see," Merem said and then his eyes went wide and he let out a chuckle. "I just got that joke about Venus," he said laughing to himself.

xxx

The first hero turned into a nearby alley followed by the magician and in the next second Gilgamesh was soaring through the sky and landing on the skyscraper on the left. Shirou raised an eyebrow before he followed him, manipulating the water in his body to leap ten stories in one jump. When he arrived on the building after Gilgamesh he was once again surprised to see the King of Heroes sitting on the floor holding a glass of wine. Another glass sat opposite him and Shirou accepted the unspoken invitation and sat down while sipping at the glass.

Shirou savoured the wine for a moment. The quality of the drink far surpassed anything that he had ever tasted outside of the gate of Babylon. He had a feeling that Sumire would give an arm up to have a taste of the wine, after making sure that she could regenerate it soon after of course.

"How have you been finding the grail war so far," Gilgamesh asked causing Shirou to raise an eyebrow at the casual way he put it.

"Oh you know," Shirou replied. "Good weather, met my sister almost got killed by the walking, shedding death of mankind."

"That thing was pretty dangerous," Gilgamesh said. "But it's specialised for humans, so you and that bitch goddess would actually have the advantage against it." Gilgamesh shook his head. "I did not foresee all of this happening," he said solemnly. "There are still six vampires and their servants roaming through the streets." Gilgamesh suddenly stared Shirou right in the eyes, his glowing red orbs inspecting Shirou, gazing into his soul. "I still want to fight you Inke. I need to fight you," Gilgamesh said and for the first time he didn't seem to be certain of himself. "The vampires do not plan to ever activate the grail," he said.

"I know," Shirou confirmed. "They just need the souls to power their ritual. After all a crucible has to be hot to burn away all the impurities."

"Oh, you worked it out as well," Gilgamesh said impressed. He took another sip of his wine. "I am also not sure of the seventh master. I have only caught glimpses of her. She's very powerful and incredibly dangerous. I do not know what she wants but her existence not only threatens the 'proper' manifestation of the Holy Grail but the entire world."

"What are you getting at Gilgamesh," Shirou said eying the King of Heroes who was acting most uncharacteristically.

"I suppose you wouldn't notice Inke," Gilgamesh said. "After all you cannot remember me before the fourth grail war." He paused and a look of reluctance showed on his face before he sighed in weariness. "At the end of the day you will not only be facing those two possibly world-ending threats but me as well."

"I always knew I was going to fight you Gilgamesh," the young magician stated. "What has changed?"

Gilgamesh stared at the Magician before he sighed and changed. For a moment there the Gilgamesh that Shirou knew, his friend was gone, to be replaced by an ashen grey version with red tattoos all over his body and armour. Malevolent crimson eyes glared menacingly at Shirou but the Magician somehow knew he was not their real target. A feeling that Shirou could only ever call evil hit his senses and the surrounding area screamed of impending death and torture.

"It happened slowly at first," the blackened King of Heroes said, his voice soft and menacing. "It took me many years to notice it. As the years grew I began to feel contempt for this weak humanity. Dismissive of their lives I was willing to wipe them all out for my amusement. Even now I can barely remember that my duty as a king was to watch over them. By the time that I fully became aware of the perversity of my existence it was too late. I do not know whether the original Gilgamesh would have resisted or if it was only able to affect a cheap copy." The Black King raised his arms. "I am given leeway to act against those that do not intend to 'properly' use the Grail but mark my words Inke. If I am not stopped I will cause…"

The king suddenly paused and his body shifted until the original golden Gilgamesh was sitting opposite Shirou. "My leeway ran out a bit there," he said chuckling, but there was nothing funny about this situation.

Shirou stared at his friend trying to wrap his mind around the situation. His friend was infected all these years and he didn't even notice. His identity was slowly being chipped away and Shirou couldn't even help him. He opened his mouth and was stopped by Gilgamesh's raised hand.

"Stop," he said. "There is no use blaming yourself. On the contrary I feel better having spoken about it. I suppose those books were right," the King of Heroes said joking but the words sounded hollow in his mouth. "I have a gift for you," Gilgamesh said.

He reached into his vault and pulled out a pair of golden swords that he handed to Shirou. Shirou eyed the swords and tentatively grasped them shock resounding through his body as he did. Immediately upon grasping them he felt power resound through his body. Hyperawareness of the surrounding water flowed through his mind. He flicked his sword and a tornado of water formed atop the roof. The expenditure costing very little prana at all.

"The swords name is Enki," Gilgamesh said referring to the dual blades in singular. "They have the power to summon a flood after seven days of use. Even without seven days they can still be used to give or enhance control over water. Plus they are naturally powerful weapons capable of going head-to-head with any Noble Phantasms.

"Thank you," Shirou said bowing his head, an unusual gesture for him. Already by wielding the swords he felt more powerful, more in control, more complete. "How can I repay you?"

"You can repay me by ending my existence with those blades," Gilgamesh said. "Now you better get going. It's a full moon tonight, you should enjoy the day while you can."

Shirou nodded and with a last goodbye he teleported out of the King of Heroes sight. Gilgamesh stood up and with a single sweep of his arm the bottle of wine and glass disappeared in gold portals. "Thanking me for that sword," the King chuckled to himself as he thought back to the day he had acquired the blade. Enki as a weapon was incredible and it would rank in the top five treasures of his vault easily. Still however there was a vast difference between what was gained and what was given up. The difference between five and one was far greater than even the difference between heaven and earth.

"Good luck Inke," the King of Heroes thought to himself. "I know you can do it."

xxx

The three walked into the entranceway of the house. Even upon entering the threshold Shirou could feel the vast pressure in the air. The anticipation that spoke of great battles to be fought.

"I quite enjoyed today Master," the goddess spoke up killing the tension. "While my opinion of humans in general has not changed I do believe that whoever came up with those 'fighting games' is most deserved of praise. I can even overlook the incompetence of the person controlling my opponent. It was not their fault they could not match a goddess."

"That was an AI Ishtar," Shirou said sounding exasperated. "I don't think they were built to match the reflexes of a servant."

"Besides the dancing games are far better," Arcueid piped up.

"I enjoyed them also," Ishtar said. "And from the looks of it so did Shirou."

"I would have enjoyed it more, Arcueid," Shirou bit out with no true fire. "If you had stopped playing that Super Affection song. The damn thing is going to be stuck in my head for weeks."

"Sorry Shirou," Arcueid said, not at all apologetic. "The song just makes me want to shake my body."

Shirou was a bit exasperated but he just smiled along. In his pocket there was a bag that contained far more than it would appear to do so at first glance. The two swords in there weighed heavily on him. They were a physical manifestation of the promise made by their donor. He was going to lose Gilgamesh. His friend was going to die. The King of Heroes had announced it as such. He gave Arcueid a spontaneous pat on the head and walked forward. Outside it was almost twilight and Shirou knew he would have to push himself to the limits to keep the rest of his friends.

 **Author Note: A lot of the time I say that a chapter was hard to write. This one however was among the hardest. The end of White Ink is approaching with a speed. Deaths, revelations and conclusions abound and while I know how it is going to end I'm so nervous to actually write it down and end my first story. I'm already thinking of a new story and still the ending is weighing upon my brain. Some of these thoughts may have shown up in this chapter.**

 **Aesir 19 I may have explained it in this chapter but let me elaborate. A god in modern times in the Nasuverse would be like a shark in a freshwater lake. No matter how powerful they are the environment is not suited to them.**

 **Please Read and Review. They truly help motivate me.**


	44. I have no idea what to actually do with

Satsuki stood in the centre of the park that Shirou had uncursed a year ago. The full moon hung ominously above her head illuminating all the shadows. She had chosen the park as a place to have her showdown with Sumire because there were no nearby water sources and more importantly there were no buildings and people that could get caught up in their confrontation. She was aware that Shirou was behind her somewhere, although the magician had performed some piece of magic that had rendered him concealed from her senses.

He had insisted on being there for her fight. The primary reason that he had given was that if Sumire's servant was indeed Sun Wukong then he would only be vulnerable to being buried or drowned. Satsuki didn't believe that his explanation was his full and only reason however. Shirou had initially sounded rather sceptical when Nine claimed that the Servant was the Monkey King and he fully expected that Sumire was pulling a fast one. Satsuki thought it just as likely that he wanted to see Sumire on the enemy team and try to confirm her reasons for her to oppose them.

Satsuki had barely spent anytime waiting when the shadows parted and Sumire stepped forth from the darkness. "It is so nice to see you patiently waiting for me Satsuki," the Dead Apostle Ancestor said. "Oh and Shirou joined you as well. It does my heart good to see both my apprentices doing so well. Although I see you haven't brought your servant, Shirou."

As she said this Shirou appeared from about five metres behind Satsuki causing the Lunarian to flinch slightly but she controlled it refusing to show any weakness before her opponent. She stepped slightly to the side angling her vision so that she could get a good look at the magician while still keeping an eye on her Sumire. Shirou was intently staring at their former teacher, his eyes scanning her form with a frown upon his face.

"I hate it when you do that," Sumire said pouting. "Isn't a girl entitled to her privacy?"

"How long have you wanted to die Sumire," Shirou said his subdued words cutting through the charged atmosphere of the evening like a sword.

"Over a thousand years now," their friend said smiling at the pair. But no matter how warm her smiles were it was nowhere nearly enough to restore the mood. "It's a bit rude to ask after a woman's age. Are you planning to add me to your harem?"

"How did you…" Shirou started. "I've been tricked," he said a second later, Sumire's smile confirming his fears.

"Oh so you finally have a harem Shirou," Sumire said grinning.

"It's an open relationship," he said defensively. "Besides you've always been a bit more attracted to Satsuki then me."

"Damn fourth magic," Sumire muttered and then started to say something further when the pair was cut off by Satsuki.

"Stop," she yelled. "What is this about being wanting to die Sumire?" she said ignoring the bit that the Dead Apostle Ancestor was attracted to her.

"No point in hiding it now," the vampire said her voice suddenly tired. "The silence of death has been my goal for a while now."

Satsuki felt as if the rug had been pulled from beneath her feet. All this time her mentor was suicidal but she hadn't even noticed. Even as she taught her and offered her a job she wished she was dead.

"Don't worry Satsu," the vampire said smiling. "I could only fool you because I'm a good actor; your observation skills are still pretty good."

"That's not what I'm concerned about you inconsiderate idiot," Satsuki yelled out raging at her mentor. "

"I know," Sumire said. "Let's talk in another location. Some place more watery."

"I swim among monsters," Sumire said beginning her chant to bring her reality marble into being. The very next a bang resounded through the silent night and Sumire jerked back with a hole through the middle of her forehead.

"Did you think I would let you summon your Reality Marble," Shirou remarked with some trace of amusement in his voice. The next second bullets of water and ice rained down on the position of the Dead Apostle Ancestor. The magicians attack came a split second too late and Satsuki witnessed as Sumire even with a bullet in the brain backflipped backwards dodging the hail of attacks and landing on her feet. The magician summoned hands of ice that grasped towards the vampire but they were to slow as Sumire teleported backwards avoiding all of them.

Shirou stepped forward gathering more prana as he did so. Only to get knocked backwards and launched across the path by a rod that had suddenly appeared. Focusing Satsuki noticed that the rod was a polearm that was held by a rugged looking man. He had monkey ears and tail and wore what Satsuki believed to be traditional Chinese clothing.

"Take him down Wukong," Sumire said smiling nostalgically. "Don't go easy, by no means is your victory certain."

"At once master," the man called Wukong said.

"And try acting better or he'll see through your form in a minute," Sumire said as the man ran off.

"Shirou already is of the opinion that he wasn't the actual Monkey King," Satsuki said watching her mentor.

Sumire just smiled shaking her head. "That boy," she said smiling self-consciously. "He always did manage to see through my clever ploys. It doesn't matter if he believes it to be a trick. By making it known that the opponent is the monkey king I have engineered a scenario that he will be compelled to fight. His two weaknesses of water and being buried are well documented and I expected Shirou to take advantage of that. After all Sun Wukong is known to be immortal otherwise."

"But why would you specifically force Shirou to engage your servant," Satsuki said trying to wrap her head around her former mentors plan.

"It's simple Satsu. I want to fight you," Sumire admitted. "If I drew Shirou into my Reality Marble I would lose. That boy is almost undefeatable when in water. But I can still have a good fight with you." She smiled with a look that seemed to be genuine joy, but knowing what she knew now put all of Sumire's reactions in doubt

"I swim amongst monsters  
My blood is their water  
My veins are their nests  
My tears are their salt  
No longer in despair  
I prepare unseen futures  
My body creates  
The infinite Ocean.

Satsuki chose not to interrupt the chant this time. Instead she merely listened to the words that arose from Sumire's soul. "So that is it huh," she said as she the waves washed over her and she tread water to stay afloar. "That's what Shirou and I are to you. The things you leave behind, your legacy. This fucked up suicide by cop thing you have going on, is this some final attempt at training."

"Do you know depression is the leading cause behind suicide Satsuki," the Dead Apostle Ancestor spoke up. "You should considering you live in a country where it could almost be considered the national pastime. Let me tell you a story," she said as she stood amidst her watery reality. "It involves a girl who had her entire island, everybody she ever knew and loved, murdered due to a vampire. She and a handful of the survivors escaped on a boat. But they were not alone on that vessel. One of the bloodsuckers had also stowed away and the creature picked off the remnants from the island one by one. Finally only the little girl was left and as she ran for her life, she by some stroke of providence managed to trick the vampire into falling overboard. The young girl lay on the raft and she starved and grew thirsty. She wanted to die but her body revolted at the thought of death. Her body's reluctance to die was so strong that she eventually consumed all the corpses of her fellow villagers. Drinking their cursed blood and becoming a vampire herself."

Satsuki stared wide-eyed at the face of Sumire. Her smile had died upon her face to be replaced by a haunted weariness that somehow made her look much older. "I don't want to live any more Satsuki," she said. "I want to see my friends and family. I just want to rest. Being with you and Shirou were some of the happiest years in my life but even that happiness is fading day by day." She suddenly smiled again. "But my body will not let me go down easily."

She suddenly gestured and the sea exploded. Satsuki's eyes grew wide as she saw the water rise carrying her mentor into the sky. After rising about one hundred metres the water exploded to reveal an enormous creature. It had the head of a carp but the body shape of a muscular human and its body looked brown and slick. It raised a pair of enormous hands and Satsuki was surprised to see that on each of the four fingers there was a mouth.

But for once in her life Satsuki did not feel out matched. "You better be recording this Anderson," she announced to her servant who gave her the equivalent of a mental thumbs up. She ducked down beneath the water and sped towards the torso of the creature, which looked almost like a centipede. Satsuki felt the ripples a moment before it impacted and dodged the giant hand that plunged into the water causing waves to spring up from where it hit. From the maws on the fingertips countless tentacles sprouted and Satsuki momentarily regretted the fact that Shirou's blood did not give her supernatural control over water.

Then the very next second she remembered why she had to give Shirou a big round of thanks for donating his blood as she sheared through dozens of tentacles with a single swipe of her arms, the magician's unique body structure giving her an advantage underwater. Rocketing forward she jammed her hands into the hand, her immense strength managing to penetrate the rubbery skin of the creature and she physically pulled herself up the arm making her own handholds and rocketing up the beasts arm at a speed that would make world-class rock-climbers resign in shame. The other hand came to intercept her climb and the tentacles again attempted to latch onto her but she dodged their approach and leapt onto the other limb and started ascending using that appendage. She made it to the shoulder flipped onto the neck and sent out a single kick with all her might causing the beast to stumble and fall. As it fell Satsuki jumped landing on the monster face and in a flash summoned the 'primordial soup' from her Reality Marble and fired it directly into the eye of the unfortunate creature.

The creature howled in pain and started to tremor as the corrosive liquid ate into the eyeball of the beast. Satsuki maintained control over the liquid and with a force of will directed it forward into the brain. Satsuki jumped off the beast into the water again and had to dodge as the limbs of the beast were flung around randomly in the creature's death spasms. A few moments later the creature went still and sank beneath the waves and a moment after that Satsuki felt the creature's DNA enter her Reality Marble.

"Wow that was pretty good Satsuki," she heard the voice of her mentor behind her and turned to see Sumire still standing ankle deep in the water. "Feel like giving away what your new Reality Marble does." At Satsuki's deadpan look Sumire smiled. "No, but it's made you confident. That is good." Suddenly the entire surface of the sea rippled and Satsuki had to focus on keeping her calm at the sight that appeared before her.

Countless monsters arose from the depths. Some were the size of only a man while others dwarfed even the monstrosity that Sumire had summoned earlier. They took a multitude of shapes. From tentacle men-sized creatures with bulbous glowing eyes that looked like something from one of Lovecraft's works to floating jellyfish that blotted out the sky with their numbers to armoured oceanic serpents. Satsuki got the sinking feeling that Sumire had finally taken the limiters off and this was the result, an endless army of creatures of unknown strength.

"Don't stand there looking like a half-wit Master," her servant spoke up. He had materialised next to her and was floating on the water with a book held up out of the water in which he wrote as he spoke. "The vampire said that the magician would have been able to defeat her. That means that she is not undefeatable." The servant shook his head gazing at her in disappointment. "Besides while I am only recently become acquainted with your Japanese literature. I am fairly certain that this is the point at which you show off your powers, or are you to dull to do that?"

Satsuki shook her head vaguely noticing that the sea monsters were not attacking quite yet. "No you're correct. Anderson watch this battle and write down the record."

"You've already commanded me to do so," the dour servant said. "You should get your memory check if you cannot even remember the prologue." With those cheeky words the servant dematerialised and Satsuki found herself alone against the hordes of monsters.

"Alright how are we going to do this," she said and as she did this she felt a shift in her body. Her eyes widened as she realised that she understood perfectly everything about the creature that she had killed before. Almost unconsciously she chopped and changed her respiratory system and felt her absorption of oxygen increase in efficiency by a percentage only Shirou would be able to quote.

Again eying the creatures she felt a small shift in her outlook. Instead of insurmountable challenges she identified them as opportunities to obtain new unique and powerful DNA.

Satsuki smiled and somewhere within the depths of her soul a tree started to bloom.

xxx

"She's putting up quite a good fight," Sumire mused to herself as she saw her apprentice charge a horde of her unwhole men. The creatures were so named because they consisted of a single organism that contained multiple bodies and every time a piece of the figure was lost a new body would sprout from that part. Sumire watched as Satsuki hacked at them without success before she was forced to abandon as she was hit by multiple screeching noises arising from the two-tailed dolphins that she hadn't thought up a cool name for.

Sumire watched as Satsuki summoned that strange watery liquid that defied her knowledge and managed to dissolve one of the dolphins before tearing an unwhole man apart with a sonic screech.

"Adaption," the Dead Apostle Ancestor said. "My apprentice could at least learn to be subtle about her power," Sumire sighed. "As could you," she said turning towards an empty space a few metres on her right. "It is most unlike me to divulge my personal history at the drop of a hat."

The blue-haired servant materialised. "You didn't try to resist the compulsion to do so at all," he said, still writing in his book.

"Sometimes you just want to get some things off your chest," the Dead Apostle Ancestor said. She suddenly winced as she felt more prana leave her. "Damn, Shirou's putting up a fight," She said smiling. "If Shirou continues to push this hard he's going to force my servant to go berserk. That would be pretty unfortunate for him, I don't think there is a single servant in this war that could beat my servant then."

xxx

 _A bit earlier_

Shirou leapt up from the tree he had just impacted in time to parry the staff that was aiming to crush his skull. His golden swords glinted as he strode forward engaging in a display of skill with weaponry with the slightly simian servant. He blocked a swing of the staff and his arms almost crumpled under the weight of his opponent's blows. Stepping to the side of a lunge he summoned jets of water that were skilfully dodged by his opponent.

Thinking quickly he stomped his foot channelling his prana into the ground. He simultaneously dropped one of his swords and flicked his hand summoning his Desert Eagle into it. Locking the staff with his remaining blade he fired multiple shots at the fake Monkey King. The servant was forced to dodge it and fell prey to the second part of Shirou's trap. A floor of ice momentarily made the servant lose his footing and he was thus momentarily debilitated which left him unable to react as the Magician ran him through with his sword.

Shirou didn't let his guard down which was what let him dodge the retaliatory blow that almost took his head off. Falling backwards he was able to see the shape of an axe whirl through the space that a moment ago had been occupied by his neck. Summoning his prana he launched an all-out attack on his adversary and even as he retreated back to his other sword he observed as every shard of ice and potent jet of water was destroyed, his opponent's body shifting and reforming creating weapons that utterly repelled his attack before they faded absorbed into the beings body.

Shirou kept an eye on him even as he drew his sword to eye-level and his attack slowed and stopped. To his surprise he found that there was not one drop of blood on the blade. Instead the golden blade that had run his opponent through was coated with a much more alarming substance.

"Clay," Shirou remarked to himself contemplating his life choices. "What are we playing at Mesopotamian bingo."

 **Author Note: I'm going to put on my serious hat for a moment and state that this Author does not advocate suicide and advises all those reading to educate themselves about the epidemic spreading through modern society. On another note I didn't specifically state this earlier but the dreams that Shirou had about Ishtar were all from myths involving the goddess. First was Enki and the world order. Second and third was Inanna and Shu-kale-tuda. Third was the descent of Innana into the underworld. Fourth was the incredibly long title of Inanna and Enki: The transfer of the arts of civilization from Eridu to Erech.**

 **gwojo: Yes**

 **Dr. Masaki: Yes but Shirou doesn't have the time to devote himself to finding a solution in the middle of the Grail War. This is also an out of context problem for him. He had never considered it a thing that needed to be doing.**

 **Gilgamesh King of Mongrels: You know as I wrote that I knew somebody would mention the Bull Shark. Except I was thinking of the Zambezi shark. Blame it on the local culture.**

 **Please Read and Review**


	45. these titles I mean they started out as

Shirou watched in fascination at the spectacle that took place before his eyes. Just a few moments ago his opponent had taken the form of a lean well-muscled man dressed in a Chinese outfit that Shirou could not remember the name of. This was not the case anymore as he silently observed the form of his opponent shift and the substance of his body to reveal itself as clay and mould itself into the form of an androgynous figure with green hair wearing a white robe.

"Interesting," Shirou mused as he idly reloaded his gun. "I cannot conceive how you were made."

"I was made by created by the gods," Enkidu admitted. "I would not expect anybody who has lived such a short span of time to be able to replicate the act of my creation."

"I know for a fact nobody alive today could," Shirou admitted. "I'm actually one of the most knowledgeable about the creation of artificial bodies. While I don't like to toot my own horn, I don't believe anybody has sufficiently greater skill than me to make a noticeably better attempt. I'm afraid Enkidu that there is no Frankenstein with the ability to end your solitary existence."

The servant inclined his head in acknowledgement. "So you have guessed my identity," the servant acknowledged.

"It's not much of a guess," Shirou said. "You weren't doing a very good job hiding it. Despite your strength and speed you lack the skill necessary to properly wield that weapon. The fact that you're made of clay was the smoking gun." He said. "Are you aware that Gilgamesh is alive?" Shirou questioned curiously. "I'm having trouble believing that you have not met up with him yet."

"I am aware that he is alive," Enkidu said. "But I am also aware that he would simultaneously be aware of my own existence. The fact that he has decided not to contact me indicates that he does not intend for a reunion. It is not my place to go against his wishes." A touch of sorrow managed to seep into the voice of the man made of clay but his face remained stoic.

"Fair enough," Shirou admitted. "For my interest can you tell me what Sumire's instructions for your fight with me were?"

"My master has instructed me to defeat you," Enkidu confessed. "She also further told me not to go easy on you."

"I see," Shirou said. In the next instant he clicked his fingers and a flood of water washed towards the clay man. The wave was blocked by a wall that appeared from the ground and redirected it around the servant. This didn't stop the magician for a second as he immediately teleported behind Enkidu, leaving his swords planted in the ground, and fired multiple bullets from his Desert Eagle at the back of the servant. A massive axe rose from the ground blocking the bullets. While the impact from the projectiles caused cracks to appear on the axe they were ultimately not able to penetrate the weapon.

Shirou eyes widened as the axe suddenly flew towards him. Thinking quickly he pumped prana to the Emiya family crest causing the world to slow down. He stepped to the side driving his elbow into the axe as it swept past him taking note of the fact that the weapon returned to clay once it was struck hard enough. Shirou didn't have any time to rest as he was forced to use his improved speed to doge multiple weapons that rose from the ground. Shirou grit his teeth as the waves of weapons forced him to move away from his opponent. Suddenly agonizing pain and weakness shot through his shoulder and Shirou saw a spike skewered through his scapula.

The magician pulled it out of his shoulder immediately but it was too late. An axe cut through his side and Shirou felt a moment's lethargy during which he was run through by a lance that penetrated fully through his tough body leaving a hole through the lower portion of his torso. Under pressure Shirou pumped more prana towards Nolava II causing metal to fill the holes in his body. In the same instant that he healed himself Shirou teleported to the other end of the park.

Catching his breath Shirou thought through the various methods he could use in order to defeat his opponent. He discarded matching the output of weapons with blasts of water and ice; the servant's weapons were of superior quality and he seemed to be able to draw a limitless supply of them from the earth. In addition whenever he touched the clay he felt a brief period of weakness which ruled out engaging him in melee combat. Shirou took a deep breath relaxing his body and mind. He was going about this the incorrect way. His opponent was a piece of clay that could absorb more of itself from the earth. Suddenly inspiration struck the young magician and he smiled as he recalled a fruitless experiment that he had performed a year ago.

Crossing his arms Shirou waited for the arrival of Enkidu. He didn't have to wait long as within a few more seconds the servant appeared in front of him. Words were not wasted as another collection of peerless weapons rose from the ground and sped towards the prepared magician. This time however instead of dodging or blocking Shirou raised his hand that contained the ring that he had used so many years ago when he was still inexperienced to gather water so that he could use for attacks. A year ago he had revisited the project when he had obtained access to the Matou family library. The Matou magecraft centred around absorption in an abstract way. With their collective knowledge Shirou tried to empower his ring to the extent that he could suck out all the water in a human's body leaving them a desiccated corpse.

This experiment was a failure as the human body refused to let water leave in quantities like that and had many safeguards to prevent it. These however were safeguards that clay wouldn't have. An almost visible corona of magic swept outwards from Shirou's hand causing the grass to turn yellow and then brown as water was sucked out of the surrounding vegetation. The effect on the weapons was just as pronounced. Where before they were peerless weapons greater than any modern day equivalent and able to easily pass through his defence; when they were hit by the wave and had the water ripped out of them they cracked and warped and the few that didn't veer off course of break apart entirely bounced off Shirou's body. Despite the high velocity it would take more than a broken weapon to penetrate his skin. Shirou smiled and raised his hand as the water that was sucked from the land and absorbed into his body.

To Enkidu's credit the green haired servant did not stick with a tactic that didn't work and instead launched himself at Shirou at such a tremendous speed that the magician automatically activated [Time Alter] causing the world to slow down by three times as much before he was able to hastily block a bone-shaking punch from the dangerous servant.

When the Enkidu's fist connected with Shirou's forearm two things happened at the same time. Shirou felt the typical weakness that came with being struck by the clay man set into his bones and Enkidu's entire arm warped and cracked. The servant looked towards his arm in shock and Shirou took the opportunity to strike the servant in the chest with his hand holding the ring.

As soon as the punch connected Shirou felt the typical weakness in his muscles but he overcame it by concentrating on the water that made up over ninety-nine percent of his body and forcing it to send another punch and then another. Enkidu backed off, his body cracked and warped, but he didn't have any breathing room as the magician teleported behind him grabbing the back of his head and slamming it down into the ground below.

In a moment Shirou was left clutching Enkidu's head and the majority of the clay disengaged reforming into the green-haired servant before. But he was noticeable weaker this time with his body less defined then before; his existence of a golem was plain to see. Shirou teleported back to his original location and picked up Enki. While in most circumstances he would have kept up the fight, he actually had too much water in his body at the moment and if he was forced to continue it was likely he would start instinctively firing off water from his body. Thankfully the pair of blades that Gilgamesh had given him had the special ability of absorbing water and a particularly massive empty reserve that Shirou had been filling up.

Teleporting back to the location of the green-haired servant he noticed that his body had been restored to its original form; although Shirou was utterly certain that he was not as strong as he originally was due to the lack of water.

"Not going to give up," he said feeling a bit of reluctance to kill Gilgamesh's best friend. "This fight is basically over. You're like a dragon Pokémon and I'm an ice-type," Shirou said. "Now that I've found out your weakness, there is basically no way for you to win."

"Please don't refer to me as a dragon again," the man of clay said still politely. "Where I come from they were not looked upon favourably and the feeling was mutual." The servant straightened out. "I'm sorry but I was instructed to win and not to go easy on you." There was a look of genuine sadness in his eyes and then Enkidu exploded.

Shirou reflexively closed his eyes when he was hit by a wave of pure mana. He had to physically dig in his heels and even then he felt his whole body slide backwards under the oppressive force that had now confronted him. Regaining his footing he opened his eyes to find his opponent had once again changed his form.

Enkidu had previously adopted a shape that could pass for human. However there were subtle things that caused Shirou to easily remember that the creature had never been human. His perfectly androgynous, too beautiful form was one of them but it also manifested in the way he spoke and his gestures. They looked too learned and gave the impression of something trying to imitate humanity.

This new creature had a humanoid shape and that was the full extent of the beings relationship with the masters of the planet. It stood eight metres tall with tanned skin and was incredibly bulky with four arms with human hands. That was where it's passing resemblance to humanity ended. The creature had no definition to its muscles appearing as if it was made out of a child's moulding clay. In addition besides the mouth that split the creatures face revealing a prehensile tongue and massive crushing teeth its face was devoid of any extra features. No ears no nose and no eyes adorned its visage.

The resulting effect caused the young magician to raise an eyebrow but it was nothing compared to the effect on the environment. The brown and dying grass had rejuvenated, new trees had sprouted from the ground and the park now looked like a paradise with types of vegetation that Shirou had never seen before.

"I may have made a terrible mistake," Shirou admitted as he stared down the creature. "He had not forgotten the class skill of the berserker but he did not expect its activation to have this much of an impact. Shirou kept his eyes on the beast as he walked forward to retrieve his swords. The beast that Enkidu had become did not seem to be hostile but the sheer power that it gave off indicated that it could become a very deadly opponent.

But the beast did not attack instead it merely looked around and then turned around and walked away annoying the magician. Shirou merely snapped his fingers and condensed all the water in the sky into a massive iceberg above the creature. The next scene happened unbelievable fast. The creature lashed up with a single hand shattering the multi-ton iceberg like it was made of glass. On instinct Shirou immediately cranked his [Time Alter] as far as it could go causing the world to go silent, dark and cold. Still even if he lost access to his senses he couldn't miss the hand extending towards him. The power behind that blow created ripples that threatened to deafen his mystical senses and he pushed ineffectually at the diamond hard air in order to dodge the incoming blow. The human sized hand approached Shirou and the Magician felt his body creak as his bones and ligaments were pushed to their absolute maximum in order to dodge the mountain coming his way. At the last second Shirou managed to create enough space in the frozen air to move his body enough to the side that only his arm was impacted by the monster. Pain coursed through his body as his arm was slowly crushed by the force of nature. He felt his body weaken again and he lost control over his crest.

Time returned to normal, the world grew warm, air returned and light and sound came into being but Shirou was only peripherally aware of it. Massive pain coursed through his body from the position of where his arm used to be a few seconds ago. He was knocked out of his stupor a moment later when the sonic boom hit his ears and the air rushed into the space where his arm used to occupy.

Shirou sighed as he watched the beast examine its own arm as if it was surprised to see that happen. "Really," he mused to himself smiling. "I don't think I've been this scared since I stumbled onto Arcueid's pornstash." But the smile died on his face. "You're not even interested in fighting are you," Shirou said with copious amounts of blood still spewing from his left arm. "But I can't leave you to wander around like this. Hmm, now what should I do?"

Shirou's musing ceased as his ears picked up sounds in the park. "No," he said, his eyes widening. "Not now, please not now."

The monster did not share his trepidation as it turned its head to the side at the noise and then a moment later took off after the sound.

"Of all the fucking times," Shirou said. He absentmindedly absorbed the blood from the ground into his body, picked up one of the dual blades and took off after the monster. The monster seemed to be naturally faster than Shirou but the young magician was far more determined. Even without the use of the crest he managed to keep up with the creature and as he managed to intercept the creature landing in front of the young man and forming a wall of ice between him and the monster.

Shirou watched as the monster slowed and approached cautiously at the sign of the ice. He eyed down the phantasmal beast trying to discern its weakness. Behind him he could hear the startled gasp of the young man as his eyes fell upon the massive beast.

"I-I-I-Inke," Shirou heard the young man's voice from behind him. "What is that," he continued on his voice unsteady.

"The closest thing you'll ever see to a god in this modern world," the magician replied and he turned towards the human. "I'm sorry do I know you."

"We go to the same sc… Wait your arm," the young man said and he sounded like he was having a mini panic attack.

"Calm down," Shirou said firmly. While he sympathized with his situation this kind of battlefield was no place for a high school child. "You need to head straight home and stay out of the street at night.

"Don't you…" the guy started.

"No," Shirou interrupted. "If you don't leave you will die." At the boy's hesitation Shirou grabbed the boy's shoulders turned him around and pushed him. "Fly you fool," he yelled out in English." This was the last straw as Shirou's schoolmate turned and ran into the blackness of the night.

A crushing noise rang out through the night and Shirou turned to see the beast deliberately crushing the ice beneath its feet.

"You really are strong," Shirou admitted. "This is a fight I cannot actually hold back in. I'm going to have to go all-out and hold nothing back to defeat you," Shirou continued and an undercurrent of anticipation sounded through his voice. "I hate to admit this but I find it very hard to back out of a good fight. When it comes down to the wire and I have to stretch myself to the limit before I can even consider winning." Shirou shook his head. "Why am I even bothering to talk to you? You can't understand me and I could be using this time to do more important things, like killing you."

At those last words Shirou activated Nolava II to its fullest and used the Emiya crest to create a bounded field to speed up the position where his arm would be. A black spindly limb grew out of his shoulder and in under a second it was replaced by a metallic arm. Shirou flexed his arm as Nolava II finished its healing process leaving an unblemished left arm where none had been before.

Shirou shuffled his feet laying four taps alongside the grass and leaving four runes behind him. "The beast that was once known as Enkidu I challenge you to a duel," Shirou said and he felt the power from the runes wash over him. The combination of the four simple runes was inhumanely powerful and Shirou watched as the beast from the age of the gods was affected.

For the first time in the battle the beast turned towards Shirou and actually regarded him. Shirou didn't return that consideration as in the next moment he had summoned Niddhoggr the giant dragon appearing besides him. The beast's attention immediately went to Shirou's companion but the Magician did not pay any attention as Shirou immediately prepared his ultimate attack.

"Get him Nidhoggr," the red head said. The dragon obeyed his commands and charged down the clay monster. The thing that used to be Enkidu waited until the monster was on top of it before it lunged out with its four hands pulling the creature apart. But Shirou did not stop there. The normal ability of the dragon was to absorb water from the air to regenerate itself. But it had a second mode that he could use as a suicide attack. With a snap of his fingers the hands of the clay monster froze and started extracting water from the clay to fuel their freezing. Immediately once the arms were frozen Shirou teleported behind and unleashed a full powered [Amessunu Istenis] directly at the back of his opponent. Shirou slowed down time further and this time instead of dodging the attack he met it head on using the sword that Gilgamesh bestowed upon him to cut through the hand of the creature.

The beast howled as its hand was cut in two and Shirou returned to normal time before teleporting onto the beasts head and leaving a deep slash in the back of its head. Shirou frowned and teleported away as a giant hand covered in ice landed in the spot he was previously. Shirou watched from the ground nearby as the ice covered hand smashed the beast into the ground.

"I thought that only happened in cartoons," Shirou mused. "My swords don't do much damage to it." He watched as the being smashed all of its hands on the ground causing the arms to be obliterated. This state of being didn't last for long as the arms regenerated almost instantly. Shirou frowned as he noted that the creature healed by drawing in mana from the surrounding land. That could prove troublesome. He did not have the ability to drain the land of mana in its entirety and he did not believe he could teleport the beast into a mana dead zone. Sighing he realised that he didn't know of a way to win currently. This beast was far beyond him and any other being since the gods died off and he didn't possess any weapons in his toolbox that could kill it.

"No," Shirou corrected himself with a smile on his face. He always had one last tool in his toolbox. He still had his most powerful and yet most dangerous one, Magic.

When Shirou was far younger he had created a trigger. It was a simple image that had transformed him from the state of being a normal human to that of being a magus. As he grew older he had lost that trigger or to be more precise he had decided to never turn it off. His circuits were always either on or on the verge of being on. Night or day Shirou was a master of magecraft 24/7.

Now he once again he recalled as water burst through the ground and he drew fully upon his Magic past any level that he had ever reached. His eyes took in the gardens and he could see how much more they were than just their physical shapes. He could see what they represented.

A hand reached out to crush the Magician and it was instantly [Frozen]. The creature launched another attack but this time Shirou blocked it by summoning an [Unbreakable] wall of ice in the path of the attack causing the hand to splatter against the wall. Shirou accelerated his own time and stepped between the other two arms the hard air giving way beneath his magic. Concentrating his power on his ring he stabbed it into the chest of the creature and he dodged back as he watched the god of clay extremities start to dry out even as the chest started to turn to mud. Delving deeper into his magic he froze the mud causing the body of the god to ice over.

This didn't go over very well with the mud creature. It tore through its body extracting the ring and charged at Shirou plunging a hand at his torso that was only barely blocked. The fight shifted into the creatures favour as Shirou was forced to push his crest to its limits in order to keep up with the sheer speed of the rampaging giant. Blow after blow were only blocked by the conceptual ice walls that arose from wherever Shirou raised his hands and the magician found his prana running low for the first time in ages. A bit of mud splattered against Shirou and the magician felt himself losing strength. He quickly wiped it off but in that moment of distraction the clay creature was able to power through his conceptual defences and land a blow that, if it weren't for a hasty water shield, would have killed him outright. As it was the magician was sent flying back into the park with his entire body aching.

Shirou dug himself out of the trench that he was in. "This guy is too strong," he mused to himself as he felt the creature move towards him. "But I've fought stronger," he said before thinking back to a behemoth in the underwater ocean.

"Wait what was that," Shirou thought to himself in alarm. "I've never fought something like that. But the image of a massive creature of unprecedented power continued to flash through his eyes and he put a hand to his forehead as felt a headache begin to develop.

"No," Shirou yelled into the cold night. "I don't have time for this now," he said softer. He took a few deep breaths and felt his overstrained magic circuits begin to slowly recover his prana. Watching as the creature limped through the trees he began to feel a little bad for it. What he was doing could be considered close to infanticide due to the mental state of the creature. It was worse by the fact that the creature genuinely didn't know that any of the things that it was doing was wrong, it didn't know that it would be incompatible with the land of today. In effect it was born and then it was suddenly forced to fight him.

But pity would not stay his hand. As fearsome of a foe that Enkidu must have been back in the age of the gods here he was still a servant and constrained by a servant's body. No matter how much mana he could absorb from the land it couldn't compare to the quality from the Age of the Gods. Thus Shirou hypothesized that the difference must be taken out of Sumire's reserves. The fact that she seemed to have cut him off from the extra magical energy spoke very well of the damage that Satsuki must be doing. Shirou attempted to smile but it looked half-hearted at best. He still hadn't quite got his thoughts around Sumire dying but now wasn't the time to properly come to terms with it.

Looking at the pitiful form of the creature Shirou decided to get it over with. He summoned ice around his hands but he didn't stop there. Water from the surrounds coalesced around his body causing the grass to once again turn brown. The beautiful trees that the creature had sprouted withered as their desiccation was complete. At this derisible sight, the creature let out a mournful sound and launched itself at Shirou.

It was slower this time and Shirou was able to catch it in mid-air with only a [Quad-Accel]. His entire arm was covered by ice which cracked and shattered but was replaced by more of the water that was absorbed into the frosty suit. Blows once again came raining down on the magician but the ice around his body absorbed more and more and with each strike the armour that Shirou was wearing grew and became more defined and condensed until facing Enkidu was an eight foot tall headless giant in which Shirou resided. It was at this point that Shirou decided to fight back. He lashed out with his fists and he met the clay god blow for blow. A thrust through the chest of the golem was returned with a barrage of blows from Shirou's opponent that rocked the suit of ice armour back and forth but Shirou was able to regain his footing. He retaliated by grabbing two of the arms of the creature and tearing them off. The creature took this time to attack him but Shirou weathered the blows and placed the armours hands on the stumps freezing them and preventing him from regenerating without tearing his shoulders off.

The creature howled in pain and Shirou took that moment to kick the legs out from underneath it. This caused the creature to go falling to the floor and Shirou took that opportunity to lay a beating on his prone opponent. In less than ten seconds the creature had its arms and legs ripped off as well as the bottom of its jaw and Shirou was just punching at the defeated creature as it feebly tried to regenerate. Suddenly a punch from Shirou pierced through the creature's body but in turn the arm cracked.

Shirou's eyes widened in shock as he tried to repair the arm and felt his reserves hit rock bottom. Unfortunately magic circuits were part of the soul and thus under the domain of the third. He had never found a way to increase his prana reserves and he had lost interest when he realised that he never ran out of prana. Unfortunately today seemed to be the day when he would have to amend 'Never' to 'Almost Never'. Shirou tried desperately to hold on to his failing armour but he suddenly felt a wave of mental tiredness that he realized came from overusing the fourth magic.

"No," Shirou said to himself. "No, no, no," he repeated as he felt his armour begin to fall to pieces. He was over a sea of clay right now and he really didn't want to fall into it. But it was futile as more and more pieces shaved off the armour. Suddenly the chest piece in which Shirou resided fell to pieces and Shirou found himself barely hanging onto an outcrop with one hand. Unfortunately his body was also at its limit and after just a few short moments Shirou plummeted towards the clay below.

But he never hit the clay as an instant later Shirou found himself landing on a soft surface. He felt sudden movement and the next instant he found himself sitting in front of Gilgamesh. The King of Heroes was standing and looking at the sea of clay. Occasionally and arm or a face would show up but for the most part there was no recognizable being in there.

"I don't like seeing him like that," Gilgamesh admitted. He withdrew an arm from the golden ripples and pulled out a… thing. Just looking at it gave Shirou a headache and a weird feeling in his chest at the same time. He was overwhelmed and so tired he closed his eyes so that he didn't have to see that thing at the moment. A mass of prana erupted from a few feet in front of Shirou and after it disappeared Shirou opened his eyes to see a scorched crater where Gilgamesh's friend was a few seconds ago.

"I seem to do nothing but saving people this entire war," the golden king said to himself.

"I'm sorry," Shirou said. He had all but killed Enkidu and now Gilgamesh had to finish the job.

Gilgamesh shook his head. "I didn't want him to see me like this and I didn't want to see him in the manner that he existed. You did me a service." Gilgamesh shook his head. "It was an incredible feat worthy of a hero. You should be proud."

"I don't feel proud," Shirou admitted. "Just tired right now."

Gilgamesh nodded and then a cocky smile appeared on his face. "I also see that you are attempting to imitate your king," Gilgamesh said smirking.

"What do you mean," Shirou said honestly confused.

Gilgamesh didn't say anything and merely withdrew a gold mirror from his vault. Shirou took it in one shaky hand idly noticing that it had diamonds embedded in the surface and then he gasped.

In the mirror staring back at him were two crimson orbs.

 **Author Note: Really busy week. Tired now. Go sleep.**

 **fg7dragon: Shirou actually summoned Ishtar naturally with no influence on the choice besides his own personality. Sumire actually takes pride in that she got the cheapest servant. She took a trip to Iraq and came back with a handful of Babylonian mud. She even took economy class.**

 **Guest: Ishtar would actually lose horribly against Enkidu. There are a few reasons. He has an anti-divine nature. He has a noble phantasm that he didn't use in this chapter that does more damage based on how much of a threat to the world you are. He would very happily go all out on the goddess.**

 **GoldenKingOfUnlimitedBlades: ...Maybe. Wait a few chapters.**


	46. Water Puns and then I tried to seriously

Satsuki drove her fist towards the multi-headed plesiosaurus-like monster driving her hand through skin of the creature and absorbing some of its sweet, sweet DNA. The creature had a split brain that was able to control the different cranial appendages with a dexterity that was unable to be replicated by the human brain. Immediately her body included the DNA and she found her nervous system reworking itself and improving itself.

"Looks like you doing pretty well there Satsu," the tanned Dead Apostle said relaxing on the back of what appeared to be a flying turtle. She wore sunglasses on her face and held an ice-cold glass of lemonade in her hand. Originally when Satsuki had seen her former mentor actually drink something non-alcoholic she had done a double take and had subsequently lost a hand to some sharp toothed eel-like creature. While the hand had partially grown back there were still a few fingers missing so Satsuki took the opportunity to show Sumire one of her fingers that were not missing.

Sumire just burst out laughing. "Not having fun their Satsu," she said chuckling to herself. "Come on you've got to tell me how you feel. How does absorbing all that fresh DNA feel?"

Satsuki's eyes widened. "How did you know?" she said.

"You weren't being very subtle," Sumire said as she set down her lemonade. "You have manifested thirteen different abilities in this five minute fight and all of them have been a weakened form of my creature's abilities. You're not plundering their concepts because quite frankly that is Shirou's domain, so you must be integrating their DNA and doing a very poor job of it."

"What are you talking about," Satsuki said before a painful tremor through her body sent her to her knees.

"That is what I'm talking about," Sumire said standing up. "Did you think that DNA was like Lego? Just take a block on and a block off. Not to mention that your base form is a phantasmal beast and operates on completely different laws of physics." The Dead Apostle Ancestor shook her head in abject disappointment. "That was sloppy Satsu. That was far too sloppy."

The Dead Apostle Ancestor looked to continue her speech when she suddenly grimaced and clicked her fingers manifesting a medium side sack from mid-air. She reached into the bag and withdrew a lime emerald that was brimming with power. In one movement she drained the prana from the gemstone and let out a satisfied breath.

"Honestly what the hell is that magician doing to my poor servant," Sumire said jokingly. "He's flipped into madness mode and that takes a hell of a lot of juice." Sumire paused for another moment and picked up another gemstone draining it of power. "This is going to be a bit of a bitch isn't it?" She idly picked up and drained another gem. "You have too many conflicting sources of DNA at the moment and they don't mesh well with each other and you incorporate the surface changes without taking into account subtle adaptations that allow the creature to survive." She picked out another handful of gems from the bag. "Goddammit Shirou."

Satsuki stood up while feeling the weakness in her muscles and bones. Somewhere in the middle of the fight she had realised that she now had an understanding of the DNA she had absorbed and basic knowledge of how it went together. But the truth behind Sumire's statement had hit her hard. Her body was physically tearing itself apart trying to keep all of the changes. Reluctantly she returned to her base form and felt the Lunarians natural regeneration kick in and restore her hand to normal.

"These creatures are valuable sources of DNA but I'm going to have to beat you with this form," Satsuki said. "Isn't that right Sumire."

"You should at least practice with it for a month before taking it into battle," the Dead Apostle Ancestor said before draining another gem. "Oh well, I guess I won't need these when I'm dead."

Satsuki darted forward at such speeds that she actually created a large wake behind her. Summoning the primordial ooze from her soul she flooded the creatures taking in their DNA but deliberately not integrating it into her body. There were many creatures that either avoided the goo or were not affected by it and Satsuki felt a hail of spikes in her body and a coursing numbness that her body informed was poison and recommended a better filtration system for. Satsuki sighed and swapped out her kidneys and liver for better improved variants. She felt that buzzing while doing that and became aware of the fact that her body was not coping with the additional improvements in structure as well as she originally believed.

"Wow Satsu, you're not doing too well, are you?" Sumire said hypocritically as she was still draining gemstones and popping the drained ones back in her bag. "I feel I should warn you that if you don't beat me soon you will be in a lot of trouble. I mean all this activity should stir some of the big ones up."

Satsuki's eyes widened and she propelled herself through the water as a chill of dread ran through her spine. The creatures she had fought were interesting and had some unique abilities and DNA but for the most part they were no match for the Lunarians physical form. Satsuki had no doubt that her former mentor was not lying about their being bigger creatures beneath the waves that hadn't been stirred up yet.

Leaping out of the water she twisted her body to avoid the strike of a snake like creature and with one swift kick to the head crushed its skull. Landing on the water she took off with a burst of such speed that Satsuki ran across the surface of the water. She dodged the strikes from tentacles, claws and fangs as she charged Sumire who was still standing on that turtle. Suddenly in front of her a segmented snake-like beast rose from the surface in front of her blocking the way forcing her to jump back and let her body drop beneath the surface. A serrated smile shone in its angular head that was larger than the majority of the beast that came from Sumire's ocean.

The creature suddenly roared and Satsuki was surprised to see the majority of the smaller creatures scatter before it. Immediately an answering roar rose and out of the depths another creature ascended to meet it. This creature had a blunt statue-like face on a human-like with an astonishing amount of eyes upon a narrow body. As Satsuki watched its narrow body cracked and splintered into an uncountable amount of tentacles with the ocular orbs causing it to look like a demented humanish jellyfish.

"Oh my gods, now you've done it now," Sumire said flatly placing her hand on her face. "You're even making me curse like Shirou, Satsu."

Without even looking at Satsuki the two monstrously sized titans started to duke it out amongst each other causing blood and viscera to drop down upon the seas.

"Is that normal," Satsuki asked Sumire, her face deadpan.

"Normal no," Sumire returned with her face equally deadpan. "Expected yes. You see Satsu, animals have instincts. And for many of the largest carnivores these instincts make them incredibly violent towards competitors. They sure are making a lot of noise. It won't be good if this continues."

"Feel like sharing the reason," Satsuki asked with a hint of apprehension in her voice.

"Oh, you'll find out," Sumire said ominously. "Or you'll kill me beforehand. Okay Shirou I've had enough," she yelled out tossing the bag of jewels on the back of the turtle. "Enkidu you're on your own."

"Enkidu?" Satsuki asked.

"My servant," Sumire answered instantly. "Alright you two," she yelled out to the giant monsters. When they didn't answer her Sumire sighed and clapped her hands causing large watery hands to arise from the ocean and grasp the two creatures by the neck dragging them down to Sumire's turtle. "Listen up you two, I brought you here to attack her. Not to attack each other now if you don't attack the…" Sumire paused for a moment. "Wait Satsuki what species are you."

"Lunarian," Satsuki replied ignoring the slightly surreal sight that was playing out in front of her eyes.

"Like in Touhou or Final Fantasy?" Sumire asked. "Nevermind attack the Lunarian or I'll skin both of you."

The threat seemed to stick as both creatures turned and focused on the young Lunarian. Satsuki swallowed and jumped up above the water immediately moving fast enough that she could stay on the surface. Countless tentacles from the second one honed on her flesh and she was caught briefly by a few before she floundered her way out of the mess. However the cuts burnt with poison not unexpectedly and a moment later she felt an impact on her whole body from the tail of the serpent that launched her hundreds of metres backwards and deep beneath the ocean waves.

"Good job guys," Sumire said. "Now what are you waiting for. Get after her." As the two massive sea monsters dove beneath the waves Sumire glanced up at the seas above her and took note of the fact that they were all churning and frothing.

xxx

Satsuki tumbled into the black abyss while feeling the pressure of the ocean above her. She had some experience in underwater fighting due to being friends with both Shirou and Sumire but her skills paled in comparison to those two. She felt a shift in the tides and she darted left to avoid being bitten in two by the serrated jaws of the serpent. Whipping her fist back she planted a heavy punch on the side of the creature's skull causing it to jerk to the side and disappear into the darkness again. Satsuki reached into her Reality Marbled pulling out the primordial ooze again and gasped.

The tentacles from the human-jellyfish creature raked her skin as she dodged them with barely any conscious thought. Her mind was stuck upon the strange DNA from the tentacle creature. It worked and yet it shouldn't. Every creature that Sumire had shown before could have been created by scientists in a lab with enough time and technology but somehow these creatures operated under different laws.

"Phantasmal beasts," the thought went through her head. These are beings that live in fantasy and don't conform to human rules. "That's why I couldn't copy Shirou's body earlier," the Lunarian mused to hersef. "But how can I do a Lunarian? They don't even live on the same planet. Maybe I was already part Lunarian when Roa bit me?" Satsuki shook her head. She was sure that Shirou would have a reason for it already prepared.

Dodging the assembled tentacles she shot forward through the water collecting a bunch of whatever substituted for DNA for phantasmal beasts for later study. She struck the statue-like face causing it to crack. Her instincts warned her and she dove avoiding the serpentine head that failed to stop in time and impacted the other creature and the fight between the two of them resumed.

Satsuki watched the two fighting for a few seconds before she remembered the ultimate objective. She kicked powerfully ignoring the fighting from the two enormous creatures below that painted the water red. In just a few moments she had ascended back up to the surface and she took a breath of the salty air.

"This kind of feels like being a cartoon villain," the voice of Sumire announced her presence from behind Satsuki causing the Lunarian to swivel to face the Dead Apostle Ancestor. "You know the kind with the incompetent minions. I'm actually slightly embarrassed," Sumire admitted. "I haven't had this Reality Marble enough to nail down the unthinking obedience."

Sumire strode forward on her turtle and she kicked off her flip-flops leaving her in only her bikini and sunglasses. Stretching she raised her hands towards the sea and a second later the two enormous creatures were suspended above the waves in a gargantuan pair of hands. The two creatures struggled and squirmed but they were unable to get free.

"What are you going to do to them?" Satsuki asked inquisitively unknowingly slipping into her apprentice manner of speaking.

Sumire smiled and pointed up towards the ocean that covered the sky. The entire surface of the water was choppy and dark and when the waves lowered Satsuki could see something underneath. It was something that dwarfed the two creatures that Sumire held aloft.

"They're going to be dinner," Sumire said smiling. Immediately the pair of hands ascended and held the pair of writhing creatures aloft. Satsuki watched horrified as a pair of giant crystalline claws arose from the water and grasped the two creatures dragging them into the depths. "You see Satsu. This side has a large variety of dangerous creatures but that side only holds one but it is far more dangerous than all of these combined." Sumire smiled nostalgically. "Did I ever tell you about the time that Shirou and I were almost killed by ORT?" At Satsuki's blank look Sumire continued. "Shirou was curious about the crystals in the valley and I was once friends with a Dead Apostle Ancestor that ORT had killed. Anyway the story is rather disappointing. We arrived, took some crystals. Shirou saw the creature and lost half his body before he could teleport away. I followed immediately after and Nine waltzed out of there with the other half." Sumire shook her head. "Say what you like about old Nrvnqsr. The essence of Chaos is damn hard to destroy. I don't even think the spider bothered."

Sumire shook her head at the absurdity of the memory. "Anyway we split the crystals and I cultivated that from them," She said pointing upwards at the sea that was sprouting more and more crab-like claws.

"What did Shirou create with his crystals," Satsuki asked. She was still on autopilot as she took in the scale of the creature. Just judging by the spacing of the beast it was at least one mile long.

"No idea," Sumire shrugged. "You know Shirou, he'll reveal his findings when it is suitably dramatic. Anyway the awakening of this creature is actually a limitation on me." Sumire smiled embarrassedly. "I am absolutely unable to control it. The only way I can even get rid of it is to leave my Reality Marble."

"You're not going to fight me with it," Satsuki said.

"What can you actually do towards it," Sumire asked inquisitively. "I can promise you that the creature has no DNA for you to steal."

Satsuki frowned. She still didn't fully understand her ability but she had a feeling it wasn't entirely reliant upon DNA.

"So where do we go from here," she asked the Dead Apostle Ancestor.

"I was just going to leave for tonight," Sumire said offhandedly. "We can meet tomorrow and settle our score. Think of it as putting off the rest of a gaming session for later."

"No," Satsuki said. "Not just that," she amended. "I do not want to have to kill you Sumire," she admitted. "I've thought about it and despite my betrayal you are my best friend. I don't want to… I don't want you to die." Despite her resolve tears still dripped from the Lunarians eyes and Sumire's face contorted in a pained experession.

"I'm sorry Satsuki," Sumire said with her voice barely above a whisper. "I was happy," she said giving a half-smiled. "These years I spent with you were the best since I first became a vampire long ago." Sumire's smile changed slightly and a bittersweet look appeared upon her face. "But it's my time," she said resolutely. "I want to pass on."

"Then why me?" Satsuki yelled out. "Why not Shirou or Arcueid? Those two would easily be able to put you out of your apparent misery."

"Because if you beat me Satsuki," Sumire said slowly drawing out every word. "Then it means you are strong enough to survive in this world. That is the only thing tethering me to the world at the moment."

Satsuki was struck speechless. She opened her mouth to say something. To say anything but the moment passed and Sumire vanished the fading remains of the park popping into view.

"Did you win," the voice of Shirou rang out through the night. He sounded tired and concerned, a far cry from his usual attitude.

"I didn't lose," Satsuki said. She turned and saw Shirou sitting in the park next to Gilgamesh. "Aren't you fighting?"

"Temporary truce," Shirou admitted and Satsuki noticed that his eyes were glowing red.

"Did you get bitten Shirou," Satsuki asked wondering if he had undergone a transformation to vampirism.

"Not that I know of," Shirou said. "I'm not like Zelretch who can somehow manage to become vampirised in the middle of a fight. I don't know why my eyes are red."

"I think it looks cool. And is that a Mecha," Satsuki said noticing what looked to be a giant suit of ice armour off to the side."

"It's my Ice 7 armour," Shirou admitted. "A trump card that I was forced to use in the fight."

"Ice 7," Satsuki mused. "Do you have six other Ice armours?"

"How much do you know about the molecular structures of ice?" Shirou asked.

"Not much," Satsuki replied instantly.

"Then yes it is my seventh attempt at making an armour of ice," Shirou said his voice dry. "Well deduced."

Satsuki smiled at Shirou's familiar nature then she turned towards serious topics. "Shirou I'm told you have a special crystal."

"I may have," Shirou answered cagily.

"I need to take a look at it," Satuski asked… No Satsuki demanded. There was no knowing the dangers that Sumire could do with that crystal.

Shirou nodded his head acquiescing to her req… demand. "Tomorrow," he said. "I need to rest a bit but there are still others fighting. If you still have energy you should go help them."

Satsuki nodded to her friend and headed out into the night the magician's eyes analysing her every step of the way.

 **Author Note: Not entirely happy with this chapter but I'm it's late and I feel like I need to upload something. I have a busy week ahead.**

 **Thanks I corrected it**

 **Sentinal Slice He saw a facsimile of a dragon that was a fragment of Tatari and he didn't witness it's lungs only its fire. Honestly the most simple solution would be to do what Sumire did and use jewelcraft but it goes against Shirou's pride to put time and effort into a jewel only to use it up and throw it away.**

 **piddle Yes**

 **Oblivion168 Non natural concepts to Shirou fade after a while as his subconscious automatically rejects them. It's because conceptually he identifies himself as [Shirou Inke] and any alteration will be erased as they are not part of [Shirou Inke].**

 **FirstThaumaturgy The only way a god could survive would be to be conceptually or in actuality not a god. Could you see this Ishtar accept being forced into a human body or state of being.**

 **Please Read and Review**


	47. have proper chapters for the grail war

Aoka had been having an interesting few days. When she had initially heard from a reliable source that the grail war was starting up again she didn't know what to think. She had lost family as a direct result of the previous war. For what else could the Fuyuki fire be but the work of dangerous magecraft that was undertaken by all magi for the purpose of finding the Root? So she had dithered for a while before she firmly decided to attend the Holy Grail War and blast that cursed cup that had taken her parents and her little brother away. The vampiric presence had been a surprise but not too bad of one.

After all she was the magician of the fifth Aoko Aozaki, the magic gunner, the woman who achieved the highest honour in the mage association despite the terrible name. A couple of minor dead were never going to be a threat to her. Especially with the addition of her new partner in crime, Kiyohime the dragon priestess. The two of them had waded through the legions of the dead as if they were nothing.

She had been utterly prepared for anything except the thing that had actually happened and thus her meeting with her apparently alive baby brother had gone down in the absolutely worst way possible. Upon seeing the face of a supposed imposter also calling himself Shirou Aoko had snapped and she found herself attacking the person who had the nerve to impersonate her dead brother. Except the fight did not go down in the way she expected. It had been a while since Aoko had fought an opponent that strong. Her brother had fought her to a standstill before she finally accepted that he was the real thing.

"Blue," she whispered to herself. She had honestly hated that name. Not only did it sound too similar to both the name of her brand of magic and her title in the mages association but it was the name that Shirou had used so long ago. A child's inability to convey the proper words caused him to shorten her name to Ao when they were both younger and that name stuck. Him addressing her that way was the final nail in the coffin that caused her to accept that her brother was standing in front of her and… well she said things that she honestly wished she hadn't.

Honestly the war had been so hectic that she had not got the chance to properly talk to him yet. At the beginning of the night he had spoken to his servant and announced that he was going to watch over the battle with Sumire. The reasons that he had given were valid but it still annoyed Aoko that the two of them hadn't got a chance to talk and clear the air. But the fact remained that this was still a war for the survival of mankind and they both had their parts to play. Shaking her head to clear the depressing thoughts the fifth magician focused on her surroundings.

Her little brother's servant had gone off on her own saying that she had a score to settle. Since Shirou hadn't phrased an objection it was likely that he believed she was strong enough to survive and thrive on her own. From there on the last True Ancestor and… her servant left on their own crusade.

That had been another knife in her heart. To be told by the White Princess that Shiki, the boy who she had helped so long ago had died. And while saying this she was watched over by another version of Shiki that hadn't. Honestly by the time that revelation had hit her it had been a long week and she just numbly accepted the further pain.

In the end the remaining two master/servant combinations had been her and Rin Tohsaka who, despite being a proficient magus, lacked a lot of combat capability, at least compared to the other masters on their team. Therefore she had decided to team up with the younger girl and sweep the city for any Dead Apostle Ancestors while killing all the regular Dead Apostles they met on the way there. So far the strategy had found a lot of small catches but no truly massive ones. Unfortunately between the two of them they possessed no large scale sensory abilities on the level of Shirou or the True Ancestor therefore all of the Dead Apostle Ancestors had until now evaded them.

This situation suddenly changed as the pair felt a surge of prana from a place a few blocks away. Aoko turned towards the young jewel magus giving her a nod of acknowledgement before she took off down the street with her servant following directly behind her.

xxx

Bazett Fraga McRemitz backed off dodging the grasping hands of the various dead. Swivelling on the balls of her feet she drove her fist forward into the throat of the Dead Apostle crushing the throat of the creature. When she had been instructed to travel to Japan to participate in a ritual competition she had been surprised at the arbitrariness of the request. When she had been told that she would be working with Lorelei Barthomeloi she had been nearly speechless. For once it seemed like her work for the mage association had finally payed off and she was given the recognition that she deserved. However when she had arrived at the site of the Holy Grail War she had been told the brutal truth.

The Aylesbury ritual was being enacted at this location. There were seven Dead Apostles Ancestors participating and they had each summoned seven servants that were likely as powerful as them. Already the Vice-Directors servant had been killed by the Beast of Gaia. The other six Masters that held opposing servants were Magi that were not part of Clocktower and the city was filling up with the Dead every day.

This was basically a suicide mission, but Bazett did not begrudge the leadership of the Clocktower for sending her in. This was an end of the world situation and even as she was being overwhelmed by the legions of the Dead, she kept it in mind that her employer was in the room all alone facing the enemy Dead Apostle Ancestor and the servant that she possessed.

No the enforcer knew she was no match for that pair of fighters. When they had first laid eyes on the Dead Apostle Ancestor the Barthomeloi head had gone straight for the Ancestor cutting through the assortment of powerful Dead Apostles like they were wheat before the scythe. Her elite group also proved their mettle by following their leaders wake and attacking the collective Dead Apostles that clustered around the Ancestor. She had been unused to working with the group and had deliberately hung back to observe the method of attacking and that was the only thing that saved her from their fate. In less than a second a single arrow tore through the group wiping out almost all of the Chelon Canticle Brigade and leaving the remaining survivors injured and easy pickings for the Dead Apostles. The vampires had then turned their focus upon her and for the last few minutes the enforcer had found herself trying to hold off the waves of Dead Apostles fortified by the power of the full moon. Even Fragarach couldn't help as Dead Apostles possessed the ability to render Noble Phantasms held by human's hands to worthlessness.

Redirecting a crushing blow she stepped backwards when her foot hit a slippery spot in the road that was wet with the blood of the dead and the Dead. Falling she stabilised her position but it was too late as claws ripped through her shoulder disabling one of her arms. A powerful kick from one of the other Dead Apostles was enough to cause her ribcage to buckle and her to collapse to the floor. Keeping a cool head she managed to partially dodge the follow-up blow but it still took a chunk out of her shoulder. Swivelling away from the collective Apostles she turned and ran. It was no longer a fight she could win. Activating the runes on her shoes she surpassed human speed and headed away from the impossible battle.

However Dead Apostles habitually surpassed human speed and the vampiric horde was constantly on her tail as she ran through the Fuyuki streets. Suddenly a whirring noise passed by her ear and she felt a great amount of heat at her back. Not stopping she continued running until she found herself forcibly yet gently gripped by strong hands. She prepared to struggle but a polite masculine voice stopped her. Looking forward at her captor she noticed it was a young blonde man wearing a suit of armour. The magical energy that he was radiating was incredible and Bazett swiftly realized that the man in front of her was a servant.

"Relax," the servant said. "You are going to be okay."

Bazett opened her mouth to inform him about the Dead Apostles when she realised that they should have reached her by now. Turning her head back she saw an instantly realisable person as well as a street full of decaying Dead Apostles slowly turning to ash. The unique red hair combined with Japanese features as well as the utterly wrecked status of the street led the enforcer to the conclusion that she had just come into contact with the legendary Fifth Magician. A trickle of sweat ran down her forehead at the thought of being so close to the volatile Magician.

"Are there any others," another voice popped up from beside her and she became aware of a young Japanese girl with black twintails and blue eyes and wearing red shirt. "Did any more of you survive?"

"The Queen," Bazett said her voice unsteady but becoming clearer. "She was fighting the Ancestor. All the others didn't survive."

The young girl winced but firmly nodded her head. "Saber follow Aoko and Berserker and assist the queen. I'll heal her and then join you."

Saber, who must have been the man that was holding Bazett nodded and gently set the Irishwoman down before dashing out of her field of view. The younger girl immediately set to treating her wounds, pulling out a gem and forcing magical energy into her injured arms. The magic was effective as only a few moments later Bazett began to feel the pain in her arms begin to fade. Blinking at the highly effective healing done by the young woman Bazett flexed her muscles feeling that the damage had vastly decreased.

"I'm going," the young girl said. "Your muscles are mostly healed. Are you going to follow me?"

Bazett contemplated this for a moment. The two opponents were out of her league but she may still be able to provide support for the combatants. With two servants and the fifth Magician on their side they should hold the advantage. She nodded to the younger girl and took off after her as she ran through the damaged streets passing her fairly quickly despite her wounds. They heard the battle before they saw it as beams of light flashed through the darkened streets and gouts of flames flickered through the night sky. Rushing to the sight of the battle she turned a corner and came to a dead stop.

The first thing that she noticed was the Apostle Ancestor who stood engaging in battle against the Fifth Magician. The ancestor had white hair and took the appearance of a forty year old powerfully built man. He wore elegant and old-fashioned clothes that were ripped and torn into shreds and sweat coated his brow. Occasionally a bolt of light from the Aozaki head would impact his body tearing into it before he would swiftly regenerate. On the other end the Fifth Magician was keeping her distance from the Ancestor moving backwards, her arms were covered in runes while countless Magical bullets fired from her hands.

On the other side Bazett felt her jaw drop as she saw the form of a giant serpent like creature. Facing the creature was a large heavily-muscled and bronze-skinned man, draped with the dusky pelt of some creature that was holding an equally gigantic bow. Countless arrows rained down on the creature from his bow and the creature dodged and swerved to avoid the arrows. Of those few that impacted on the scales of the dragon only a few managed to pierce them and the constant gouts of flame launched at the man from the jaws of the dragon forced him to retreat from the dragon's range. Idly Bazett noticed that the Saber class servant had moved to help with the bronze-skinned man but her immediate attention was taken up by something else.

Lying with a hole through her chest lay the broken body of Lorelei Barthomeloi. Her swordcane was snapped in two and her right arm was severed from the elbow down. Her eyes stared blankly into the night sky and glittered with no sparks of life. At this point it went without saying that the Queen was dead.

xxx

Aoko was having a hard time dealing with her opponent. From the start she had identified him as Trhvmn Ortenrosse, the White Wing Lord. Aoko had heard rumours of him before. Associates had stated that despite leading a huge number of Dead Apostles he himself used no magecraft or special techniques. That was probably why his rank in the Ancestors was so low despite his age and the reverence shown to him by the other Dead Apostle Ancestors. Aoko finally understood where that reverence had come from.

She initially had tried to engage him at melee range by launching a crushing blow into his ribs. That had made him stumble a bit but the retaliating blow had nearly caused her spine to crack. Since then she had tried to keep her distance from the powerfully built Ancestor sending vast amounts of magic bullets to drill through his skin and damage his internal organs and force him to use his curse of restoration to heal. She was not always successful and multiple times she was forced to cloak herself in other copies of herself to mitigate the damage from every overwhelming blow. She hadn't even had time to help out her servant. She had instructed her at the beginning to hold nothing back and come out alive and she was unsurprised to see her transform into the shape of a Japanese dragon that spat fire at the bronze-skinned man.

Aoko focused on her own fight and sent punches forwards through time to strike the White Wing Lord breaking his own concentration. As a follow-up she summoned numerous future and past selves for under a second to unleash blasts of huge destructive energy at the unbalanced Ancestor. The dust cloud cleared revealing a pair of expensive yet old fashioned shoes. As the Fifth Magician watched time reversed and a spotless version of the Trhvmn Ortenrosse stood there with not even a smudge upon his suit. Aoko braced herself for a follow-up attack but to her surprise the Dead Apostle Ancestor stood there and clapped his hands.

"Impressive," the White Wing Lord said. "It is always a pleasure behold a new magician in action." He shook his head sadly. "If only you were a bit older and more experienced I would most likely lose this fight."

"You're very confident for somebody who is losing this fight," Aoko said keeping her eyes trained upon him.

"Ah, but that is where you wrong Miss. Blue," he said ignoring the Aozaki head's sudden frown. "The full moon is high in the sky and you have nowhere near the power of any of the other Magicians I have ever met. Why even the Kaleidoscope as diminished as he is these days is strong enough that only the first and fifth of our number would stand a chance against him. I'm sorry my dear," he said. "But this fight isn't remotely in your favour." He stretched out his limbs. "Your martial arts are certainly refreshing and unexpected for one who has been trained as a magus but it is still a weak and immature style. He unbuttoned his expensive black coat and let the material drop to the floor. Taking a stance that left his knees slightly braced and his arms held in front of his torso he gestured for the Aoko to attack him.

Aoko didn't take the bait instead choosing to continue her current strategy of bombarding him from range. This strategy rapidly lost effectiveness as in the next second she felt knuckles dig into her stomach. Gasping for breath Aoko kicked towards the White Wing Lord but the Dead Apostle Ancestor caught her blow with one hand and threw her across the street. Aoko blinked out of the time axis appearing three seconds after the blow that would have torn her in two and launched a kick against Trhvmn that he rolled with and then struck her from her blind spot causing her to go crashing into the street below. Aoko cloaked herself in other versions of herself from different times and she felt hundreds of them die beneath the punch that the Dead Apostle Ancestor levelled at her. She unleashed a blast hail of magic bullets at point blank range that would have obliterated a city block but the seventeenth Dead Apostle Ancestor caught them in his hands and crushed each of them.

Suddenly he stumbled and a second later a kick to the head from the wounded mage that she had met earlier caused him to take a step back. Aoko jumped to her feet in time to see black globes of energy be taken apart by the White Wing Lord. The next instant he caught a gem that exploded into an almighty conflagration in his hand.

Aoko circled the inferno and stood next to Rin and the other magus watching as the flames died down to reveal the pristine form of Trhvmn Ortenrosse.

"That was a decent kick," the Dead Apostle Ancestor said. "Perfectly timed at the moment I was distracted, but it lacked any sort of follow-up and that is not the kind of performance that you can get away with at this level." Shaking his head he adopted a stance again before he grimaced and glanced to the side.

Keeping one eye on him Aoko turned to see the triumphant form of her servant as the bronze-Skinned man was burnt to ash. The Kiyohime dragon immediately turned towards Trhvmn Ortenrosse and started to slither towards the battle but she was stopped by an explosion of prana. From the flames the muscular man emerged and despite having been burned to ashes his skin looked pristine.

"One down," Ortenrosse said dispassionately. "That's a bit impressive. You should finish her now."

The dragon snorted and turned towards the man unleashing another jet of flame, but this time the man weathered the flames and a single bolt pierced the roof of Kiyohime's mouth. The dragon screamed in agony and Aoko watched in horror as she began to thrash around in pain.

For the first time they heard the Archer speak. "Nine-lives: Shooting the hundred heads," he said and from his bow nine bolts of light fired completely obliterating the suffering dragon. The next instant countless bullets of energy streamed from the hands of Aoko Aozaki but they were shrugged off by the opposing servant.

"She fought well," the man said. "There are many other servants that she would have beaten."

"It is a bit of a shame," Ortenrosse remarked. "I have not seen or fought a dragon in millennia. I almost wish she didn't have to die."

"You bastards," Aoko said her voice full of visible rage. A blue tornado started to swirl around her and the look of calm dropped from Trhvmn's face immediately.

"Stop her she is using magic," he said to his servant and in the next second three arrows were launched at the magician. She managed to dodge two of them but one sliced into her shoulder. Immediately the tornado disappeared and Aoko fell on the floor convulsing the massive pain in her shoulder causing her to fall into painful blackness.

xxx

Rin despite being calm on the outside was panicking internally. While she could still feel Gawain the link with her servant informed her that he was in pain and currently dematerialised. Within the span of just a few seconds the enemy Archer had managed to take down both the Fifth Magician leaving just her and the executor to face the combined force of the pair of monsters. Cursing the war again and readying her supply of jewels Rin steeled herself and prepared to do as much damage as possible before the end.

Suddenly Aoko went still flopping back limply onto the road. Rin glanced towards her but in the dark of night she couldn't make out her breathing.

"That venom works fast," Ortenrosse remarked. "What an unsightly end for a magician." Suddenly he stilled and focused his eyes on the blood dripping from the wound. "What is that?" he said curiously and in the next second he got his answer as greenish black blood spiked into the air flying towards him at blinding speeds. Even unprepared he managed to dodge it. But he was unprepared for the fluid to reverse and pierce his back. Instantly he fell to one knee, his face contorting in silent agony.

"This doesn't look good," a familiar masculine voice sounded out in the night although the voice was more strained than usual.

"Poor Kiyohime," a familiar female voice responded. "At least you saved Aoko," Satsuki said her voice increasing in volume as she suddenly teleported in front of the two magi.

"Hopefully," Shirou said as he also appeared in front of Rin and the executor. "I got it out but that is an incredibly nasty substance." He shook his head. "Executor, take my sister away to this address," he said tossing a piece of paper to the magneta-haired magus.

"Your timing was quite good," the voice of Dead Apostle Ancestor no.17 rang out and to Rin's horror he had stood up from his kneeling position. While there was a tremor of pain in his voice he showed none of it in his posture.

"This guy does look quite tough," Satsuki said. "Can I take him on Shirou," she said addressing the magician.

"Probably," Shirou replied. "He looked quite tough but if you stick to your training you should do fine. Use your soup to control the battlefield."

Satsuki nodded and headed towards the White Wing Lord. Launching herself forward she drove a punch into his side which he blocked with his arm and then kicked towards one of his legs staggering him. Satsuki moved forward and traded punches with the elderly apostle. An arrow approached Satsuki's back but it was blocked by a wall of ice. When the arrow collided with the wall an explosion tore apart half of the street but the ice remained intact. Shirou turned towards the muscled man.

"Heracles," he said to the other servant causing the muscled man to raise an eyebrow. "How about a wager?"

At this the servant laughed. "You are proposing a wager in the middle of a fight. Go on boy, continued amusing me."

"The terms of my wager are simple," Shirou said. "They're also in your favour. We both know that Hydra venom is no joke and my colleague is easily on the level of a servant. If you fight me here then I will draw out the fight and my colleague will kill your master. On the other hand if I fight too long I might make a mistake as I'm pretty exhausted and end up dead. I don't really want to go to the Underworld, Heracles," Shirou said smiling. "What I propose is simple we both perform our strongest attacks and the person who survives gets to go on with their life. The person who doesn't survive gets to get on with their afterlife. How is that for a deal?"

"It is a rather intriguing compromise," Heracles concluded. "How should this test of be initiated? Should we attack at the same cue or take turns."

"How about?" Shirou put his hand to his mouth. "One person starts and if he doesn't pass then the next would go. If we both go at the same time there could be accusations of cheating or the results could be inconclusive or our attacks could interfere with each other."

"This entire time you have been trying to manipulate me in order to get in a free hit," the large servant said.

"Well can you blame me," Shirou said smiling. "You are Heracles, the greatest of the Greek heroes."

The servant looked to be reluctantly contemplating the situation before he nodded his head once. "That is true," he said. "I will agree to your contest. But how will I know that you will honour your part of the deal."

"I swear upon the life of my mother that I will follow the rules agreed upon in this contest," Shirou said with determination in his eyes.

The servant nodded satisfied, "Then come take your best shot at me," he said raising his arms in the air.

"Shirou you can't do this," Rin said. "He's…" she started to say but she was stopped by Shirou putting his finger to her lips. "Relax Rin," he said and whispered a few words into her ear.

"Very well," Shirou said. "Here I come, Heracles." Shirou took off running water swirling chaotically around his fist. Just looking at it Rin could tell by the amount of prana that the attack was B-rank at least. Heracles just stood there with his arms open wide as the attack came closer and closer. Rin watched in anticipation for the attack to hit and then at the very last moment, right before the attack landed against the Greek Demigod, Shirou stopped it and placed his hand on Heracles' chest.

"[Conceptual Nullification]," he said his voice thrumming with energy. There was a backlash that sent Rin's teeth rattling and the entire world seemed to screech to a halt for a moment before the Greek Demigod physically recoiled.

"What did you do?" Heracles said his deep voice resounding with anger, uncertainty and a bit of worry.

"I destroyed that special set of armour you had. I'm afraid conceptual weapons are quite weak against me," Shirou said and his smile took on a wicked tint. "You thought you could put one over me, I just turned the tables on you."

"Are you going to honour your word," the Greek demigod said.

"Nope," Shirou said immediately.

"Even after swearing on your mother's life," Heracles pressed.

"She is dead, dipshit," Shirou said his voice full of scorn. "And you just shot my sister," he spat teleporting away as Heracles drew his bow upon him. Heracles turned towards the spot on the grass where Shirou now sat nocking his bow in one immediate action… and was immediately engulfed in a humongous blast of magical energy. Rin drew more and more of her A-rank gems out blasting the demigod to pieces.

After the seventh one was empty she stopped and stared at the crater where the enemy Archer once stood. Taking deep breaths she noticed that neither the executor nor Aoko were there. She surmised that she had probably followed the directions Shirou gave when she wasn't paying attention. She also noticed that Shirou really did not look good. Minor shakes wracked his body and there was a dazed look in his eyes that didn't speak of anything good.

"Are you okay," she said concerned.

"Yeah," Shirou said. "It's been a long, long, long, long, long… night for me." He tried to get up but he stumbled a bit and fell back down. "I need to call a taxi, can't drink and drive."

Rin sighed and walked over to Shirou picking him up and holding him so that most of his weight fell on her. Suddenly the ice wall that separated Satsuki and Trhvmn's fight from the rest of them splintered and cracked and both of their heads whipped towards the icy structure. Well Rin's did, Shirou tried to but pain and general disorientation prevented him from rotating his head.

Satsuki stepped out of the icy structure and Rin was relieved to see that the streets were empty of anybody else.

"Did you kill him," Rin asked hopefully.

"Yeah," Satsuki said but she sounded unsatisfied. "That Hydra Venom really screwed him up. It's actually aggravating me quite badly. He was so strong and his moves were amazing. I regularly fight with people who have amazing skills and he made them look like amateurs. I don't even know what Martial Art he used. I don't think there is a modern day equivalent." Satsuki sighed. "Sorry Shirou but in a way I'm glad that you don't know how to use Hydra Venom. It would make plenty of fights unsatisfying."

"The venom's faded away now anyway," Shirou said lucidly still not looking at Satsuki. "When Heracles died all of his tools faded with him I'm afraid. Not to mention it's a phant, a phantasmal beast's body part I'm not sure how to do the thing," Shirou said his voice becoming noticeably more slurred.

"And that is us for the evening," Satsuki said. She walked up to the other side of Shirou and held him. "Our Magician is effectively gone loopy and our magus has just spent about a million yen of jewels," she said causing Rin to go white as a sheet as she contemplated the monetary cost of her excursion tonight."

"I have got two beautiful women on my shoulder and I'm not going to sleep with any of them," Shirou said causing Rin's colour to change from ghost to bright red and Satsuki to raise an eyebrow. "Ishtar and Arcueid keep me so tired," he said in a voice that sounded like plaintive whining. "You have no idea what it's like Arcueid is enthusiastic but Ishtar," Shirou winced. "Ishtar is methodical."

"It is going to be a long walk back," Rin thought in the confines of her head.

 **Author Note: I found that I really, really like silly or fun characters that can become serious when necessary. I've done this with Shirou, Sumire and even Arcueid.**

 **Poor Kiyohime. A lot of Heracles tasks were actually completed by him being smart or tricking his enemy. In this case Shirou did it to him. Sorry Herc but God Hand is possibly the most brokenly powerful CONCEPTUAL defense in all of Fate Stay Night. Rin actually took one life from Heracles in canon just like she did in this chapter.**

 **snowyassass1n: Hmm it is actually quite possible**

 **Please Read and Review. Reviews are fuel and light and life.**


	48. But I gave up on that pretty fast

Arcueid was slightly worried as she stood in the silent night amidst the mystic noise of various battles raging. Besides her stood her partner Shiki who, lacking her long-range sensory abilities was listening for any mundane sounds in the night that might indicate somebody encroaching on their position.

"Any news," he said as Arcueid stood up.

"Satsuki has disappeared," Arcueid said to her servant. "But it felt too abrupt to be death. It is far more likely that she has been sucked into Sumire's Reality Marble. In addition Shirou is also engaging an opponent," the True Ancestor said sighing.

"Do you want to go help them?" Shiki asked as he inspected Arcueid's face. Despite his eyes being covered it seemed like he could easily pick up Arcueid's worry. The True Ancestor smiled as she contemplated the relationship he must have had with her alternate. "We really could have been quite close in another world," she thought to herself.

"No," Arcueid said quietly, yet firmly. "Sumire doesn't want to actually kill Satsuki," she expounded not missing Shiki's look of scepticism. "Whatever Master/Apprentice business they have going on will not result in young Satsu's death," Arcueid said emphasizing Sumire's nickname for Satsuki. "And Shirou probably needs the least amount of help. Despite his occasional recklessness he is fully capable of pulling out a win against even the most powerful of opponents."

Arcueid sighed. "If I'm honest I really don't like the idea of splitting up," she said. "However I do acknowledge its necessity. If we stuck together there would be virtually no progress in hunting down the competition as they would almost certainly retreat and avoid us. We also cannot play defensively. The ritual does not require all servants to be dead and we still have not made contact with the seventh master. Shirou believes that the ritual will be completed within two days by the last day of the full moon and I agree with him on that point. Unfortunately while I hate it we have to go on the offensive and risk our own lives to take them down."

"One more question," Shiki asked. "Why do you look like a fashion disaster?"

Arcueid pouted at that question but acknowledged its validity. Her entire kit looked like it was pulled piecemeal from the garage of a kid wanting to play superhero. A glove of red adorned her right hand and a glove of blue her left. Her shoes were hardy black boots and she wore a fine brown cloak over a skin-tight body suit. While she never felt embarrassed even she had to admit that for anybody else this would be quite embarrassing.

"Mystic codes that were given to me," Arcueid explained. "After I broke his first set of gloves Shirou gave me a few more items that were much more durable. The gloves absorb and return kinetic energy, the boots allow me to stand on air, the suit," she said as she gestured towards the skin-tight bodysuit she had on, "is for protection against conceptual weapons and the cloak is for protection against discharges of mana and od."

"Think it will help," Shiki asked Arcueid.

"Let's hope so," she replied. "Do you know Shiki that I have a very advanced level of proprioception. I always know where every bit of my body is in relation to every other bit." Arcueid pointed towards a random warehouse. "I can sense my hair inside that structure. There is only one person in the world that would ever possess my hair."

"Are we going to have a family reunion," Shiki joked.

"Please don't say that," Arcueid said firmly. "That is not my sister. Currently she is an obstacle that we need to get rid of. I will handle the dog while you take her down."

"What about any backup that she has?" Shiki asked. "We already know Rizo-Waal Strout is participating and he has a servant. Not to mention her own servant. That is five-to- two odds."

"That's not entirely true," Arcueid said. "We also have our own backup to rely on."

"Even if I were to back you up Lady Arcueid," the voice of Nine rang out through the darkness causing Shiki to stiffen slightly. "Those are still terrible odds. I believe my Master would never agree to a fight on these terms."

"Perhaps so," Arcueid acknowledged. "But it still does not invalidate my point. Altrouge is a major player and if we can defeat her then we can finally gain the upper hand in this conflict. I know it's a high-risk, high reward strategy but I really think we can pull it off."

"Let's lower the risk a bit then," another familiar voice came from the dark and the trio turned to see the approaching form of Ishtar.

Arcueid immediately wrinkled her nose at the new smell she was subjected to. "Ishtar, why do you reek of blood? Didn't you have business to take care of?"

At this a slight scowl came over the beautiful servant's face. "None of it is my own," she replied. "And the business escaped by use of a command seal." She folded her arms. "I'm actually very annoyed about it. I broke his boat and his arms and I was busy beating him to death with my bow when he disappeared."

Arcueid's eyebrows rose at this. "Think he will be back tonight?" she asked.

"Nope," the Rider said with her arms crossed. "Hopefully that defeat I gave him will stop him coming back forever but I'm not so optimistic. Anyway what is the plan? I can stand here looking beautiful forever but I want to get things done tonight and I'm not joining Shirou's fight for personal reasons."

Arcueid nodded accepting the answer. "Okay then," she said authoritatively. "It is then four vs. five. I'm not going to tell you who or how to fight. You all know your skills better than I do. Are you ready? Arcueid said her voice uncharacteristically serious for the normally laid back vampire.

At four simultaneous nods the True ancestor stood up eying up the building a couple hundred metres away. She crouched slightly and in a single leap angled herself and leapt at the building. Within a second she had torn through the walls of the structure and landed in the interior of an abandoned warehouse. Bracing for a fight she scanned the room only to see that nobody had arrived. Reaching out her senses she instantly came to the conclusion that her hair and therefore her opponent was underneath her. She instantly made the connection and her eyes slid along the floor to a small square hole in the ground covered in water.

"They have some way to trace the grails that Shirou created," Arcueid surmised out loud to her companions that had arrived behind her. "But for some reason they haven't just destroyed the grail and left. They are still down there."

"Do you think it could be a trap?" the refined and cultured voice of Nine said. "If so should we spring it?"

"It could definitely be a trap," Arcueid stated. "That narrow entrance is also a perfect place for an ambush. If I were on the other side then I would pick enemies off one by one when they descended."

"And what would you do in our situation," Ishtar said and Arcueid noticed by her smile and the fact that she was slowly hovering over the ground that she had a very good idea of what the True Ancestor was going to do.

"This," Arcueid said and she plunged her foot down into the ground at supersonic speed causing the floor to be obliterated. The four of them fell downwards for about thirty meters before they came to an abrupt stop as the pieces of the ground piled on.

"Well we've effectively buried them under ground," Shiki said. "Think it will hold."

His question was answered a split second later as a massive surge of prana beneath their feet caused Shiki and Ishtar to dodge to the sides and Nine to stick close by Arcueid as she removed her cloak and spread it on the floor. This defensive action was not a moment too soon as a massive blast of concentrated prana evaporated the rubble beneath the obliterating the ground except and leaving Arcueid and Nine untouched but briefly in the air.

Arcueid swiftly adorned her cloak again as she stood in the air untouched by gravity while Nine grew a large pair of angel-like wings that gently flapped to keep himself aloft. A slight noise came from the hole and both Arcueid and Nine dodged as the expected form of a massive white wolf rose up out of the chasm. An instant later the monstrous Phantasmal beast was joined by four more humanoid figures. The tall dark-skinned man wearing sunglasses and his green-haired servant wearing the black armour were identifiable from briefings with Shirou as Black Knight Strout and his servant Achilles. The white haired man wearing the red trenchcoat over black armour was also immediately identifiable as the servant that Shirou and Ishtar had both fought. However the last one was identified solely by Arcueid because she was the only person amongst them who had ever laid eyes upon her.

"Altrouge," Arcueid hissed at the black haired girl with blood covered eyes. She looked about fourteen and wore a black princess dress that was almost Disney in its appearance.

"Arcueid," the Dead Apostle Ancestor replied. "Who let you go around wearing that?"

"At least I don't look like a gothic version of Cinderella," Arcueid replied back bitingly.

"We are not doing this," Ishtar cut into their words as she drew her bow. "If you're going to banter please do so in a manner that I can relay to my master later without feeling embarrassed for my gender."

The room went silent after that declaration. The standoff between the two sides stretched into long minutes… before it was all abruptly broken by the True Ancestor. Arcueid had often spoken about the usage of Marble Phantasm from Sumire. While both could be considered beings of incredible age the Dead Apostle Ancestor had much more experience than the True Ancestor who had slept for most of her life. The one thing she had learned is that while Marble Phantasm's take a lot longer to use in human settlements they can 'charge' up the Marble Phantasm in a manner of speaking beforehand. Arcueid had been charging up her Marble Phantasm before she started speaking.

An unbelievable force descended among the five opponents. It was a combination of heat, gravity and air pressure that would have obliterated any human instantly. From the beginning the sneak attack had no possibility of killing them but it was still an attack that could not be shrugged off against even the strongest of beings and in that moment when all five of them were entirely blindsided by the attack Arcueid launched a kick straight into the nose of the White Wolf of Gaia causing the massive phantasmal beast to go tumbling through the wall of the building.

Without a second look the White Princess vacated the building but she wasn't the only person who reacted in that very incident. In under a second Ishtar's bow was nocked and ready and dozens of arrows flew out in the direction of the Eclipse Princess. These didn't reach their target as her old opponent, the servant with the white hair, stood in front and blocked the projectiles.

"You can fight her," Altrouge said. "I'm going to continue to try and get through that damn lock." With those as her parting words she jumped down the hole.

"Shirou locked up the lesser grail?" Ishtar asked.

"Pretty thoroughly," the White-haired servant said drawing his pair of white and black swords out again.

A moment's pause and then the fight began between the two. Ignorant of Nine and Shiki's struggles the two clashed and the red-cloaked servants' swords shattered upon the hands of the goddess. A punch lashed out and the opponent Saber was forced to summon a thin silver sword that withstood the power of the goddesses blows but caused his arms to shake.

Ishtar switched it up launching a kick at his stomach that he swiftly dodged but left himself open to a follow-up palm to his chest causing him to slide backwards.

"So tell me," the Babylonian goddess said. "Why would Alaya allow one of its Counter Guardians to be summoned and in the guise of a servant no less?"

The man summoned up a red barbed spear and Ishtar met it with her blow, deflecting every thrust and playing defensively. A build-up of prana and a sudden hint of impending doom and she jumped backwards and out of the range of his thrust firing dozens of arrows of light that honed in on him.

Abandoning the spear a wave of blades materialized around him breaking apart the incoming arrows. This didn't dissuade the goddess as she fired more and more of her arrows until the man stopped summoning swords and instead summoned a large ornate shield dome-like around him that Ishtar recognized.

"The shield of the gods," Ishtar said. "Or a copy of it at least. That weapon existed during my time. It is one step below being a divine construct. That must have cost you a lot of mana."

"Why do you think I am a Counter Guardian," the man said. "He was stalling for time trying to regain the tempo of the battle and Ishtar let him do so.

"Simple," she said. "It is because you're human and because you do not and cannot exist. If you did exist I would have known of a hero with the ability to copy the weapons and combat styles of other heroes. If you were not human I would have thought you were summoned under the aegis of Gaia." She raised her bow. "So I will ask you again. For what purpose were you summoned here?"

The man didn't give her an answer. Well not one with words. A samurai sword materialized within his hands and within an instant he was thrusting the blade directly towards her chest. Ishtar made to block with her bow when a sense of danger came over her and she instead dodged the blow, lunging to the side landing on one of her hands and launching a swift kick at the face of the other servant which he moved backwards to avoid.

"Three simultaneous thrusts," she observed shaking her head. "That is the second time you've attacked me with space bending sword strikes." She pulled her bow out again and aimed it sideways at the servant and in an instant her hands blurred. Hundreds of arrows of light filled the space in a barrage that would not have lost to the Gate of Babylon. "I cannot let you get into melee range anymore," she said.

The servant was forced to parry with his pair of black and white swords but Ishtar did not let up. Her hands moved in more esoteric patterns causing the arrows to curve in unexpected ways and soon enough the servant was forced to summon shield after shield as each of them were pierced by the arrows. Multiple times he tried to summon a more powerful weapon but each time he was unable to activate it as arrows sought his death. It was inevitable that he slipped up and the slip-up came in the form of him misjudging one of the many arrows fired causing the bolt to pierce his stomach. Ishtar upped the pressure at that and in a few more moments multiple wounds appeared on his body as the arrows cut into him again and again.

Suddenly the one-sided beat-down was interrupted by a subterranean explosion that shook the ground beneath their feet causing the swift footed goddess to pause in firing arrows.

"Looks like our objective was completed," Archer said metal sprouting from his wounds.

xxx

Nine and Shiki stared at their pair of opponents. They had both been given the breakdown on the Master/Servant pair they now faced. Shiki took off his glasses and whistled at the lines that sprung to the forefront of his vision.

"The Master's lines are very thin," he stated to his current comrade. "But the servant's lines are centred on his left ankle and I'm not sure I can cut that."

"Leave him to me then," Nine said smoothly. "Focus on Strout."

"Before you finish your planning session," the severe voice of Strout sounded through the warehouse. "I have one question for the butler. Do you know of anybody by the name of Nrvnqsr Chaos?" he said causing Shiki to turn his head slightly showing his interest in the question.

"I should," Nine began. "Considering I was made by the remnants of his corpse." The silence that rang throughout the warehouse was deafening. After a moment Strout snorted in dissatisfaction.

"Fight defensively," he told his servant. "We need only to make time for Lady Altrouge to finish off the Lesser Grail."

The lancer shrugged and merely held out his lance in a form of readiness. Nine sighed and he rushed towards Achilles. When he thrust his spear out however Nine flowed around it, appearing boneless in his movements. He wasn't fast enough to dodge the follow-up stab that cut through his left elbow. Unfortunately this did very little to stop Nine. While wounds that were struck with Achilles' famed spear would normally be rendered unable to heal this was all but useless against Nine who did not heal but actually recreated his body from the chaos inside him.

The discarded arm hit the floor and morphed into serpents that struck at the heel of his opponent causing Lancer to move back. This didn't stop Nine who thrust forward and punched at Achilles, his hand increasing in size until it dwarfed Achille's body. This was sidestepped by Achilles who twisted and sliced off the other arm.

The hero of the Greeks did not have any time to rest as the oversized arm exploded and countless wasps burst into existence darting towards his heel. Darting backwards out of the range he began to strike down all of the wasps that entered his range. Nine let them drop to the floor and re-join his original body.

The two opponents stood there considering the other for a brief moment before Nine once again attacked. He knelt down onto all floors and charged his body morphing into something animalistic. A split second before hitting into the enemy Lancer dozens of hands sprouted from his shoulder and in the same instant they attacked. Nine was skewered hundreds of times, the spear obliterating his heart, dismembering and decapitating him numerous times, but in the end despite the blackness that covered the floor, the butler was able to escape unscathed. Unfortunately for Nine so was the servant unharmed. Despite the tremendously heavy blows that landed on him, blows that shook his frame and caused him to stumble. The servant remained resolute, twisting his ankle to avoid any damage to his heel. In the end when they disengaged both were no worse for wear.

"You fight well," Achille's said smiling at the exhilaration of the fight. "Honestly you would have been an amazing opponent in life."

"I was designed to be," Nine said scanning his opponent.

Achilles smile faltered. "Come on," he said. "Take some pride in your strength. Few men would be able to push me so far. I fully expect to see you on the throne of heroes in future."

Nine smiled. "I thank you for your compliments but they are misguided. I am a mere extension of my master." His gaze sharpened as he eyed down the Greek servant with burning determination in his eyes. "But you are right about one thing. It is shameful to my Master if I don't win here." Prana started flowing out of his body and the surrounding blackness re-joined with the chaotic butler. "Behold my Master's reflected glory," Nine said and multitudes of other voices spoke with him. "This is me at my full power," Nine said stepping out of the blackness his voice a susurration of deadly intent.

Nine's new form stood eight feet tall with four arms that reached down past his knees topped with thin foot long claws. A powerfully built tail dragged along the floor behind him. When he walked it became obvious that the jaws on his knees were inverted and his feet were elongated with three long thin toes. His appearance was made even more monstrous by the serene look on the butlers face as well as his immaculate black suit and red tie.

A moment passed and Achilles was blocking a knife-like set of his claws. Dromeus Kometes his speed boosting Noble Phantasm was active and for the first time in his life Achilles felt outclassed in pure motion. A punch to the throat that would have broken his neck was delivered at such a speed that Achilles was only barely able to avoid and still the wind hit him like a normal punch to the jaw. Blows started raining out at ever increasing speed and while none of them penetrated his skin he could feel the fatigue set in as he fought to not be thrown around like a ragdoll. A clawed thrust to the eyes instinctively caused the Lancer to summon another of his trump cards. His trusted shield Akhilleus Kosmos came to his hand to block the multitude of blows that rained down upon his skull.

Suddenly an explosion caused the ground to rumble and the servant for a brief second lost his footing. That however was enough, as the monstrous butler took advantage of both the lack of stability as well as the shield blocking his sight. In an instant the tail of the beast that had previously been sitting idle amidst the fight lashed out penetrating his heel of the legendary hero causing pain to wrack his body.

He stumbled back losing some of his momentum but bringing up the shield to block the onslaught that Nine seemed intent on delivering upon him. He gained a reprieve as the chaos that Nine consisted of all but imploded in front of his eyes. The viscous black liquid that his body consisted of splattered all over across the floor and the walls.

Altrouge Bruenstud stepped forward in the room causing a break in the fighting as the attacking side realised they were once again outnumbered and glanced around to determine who would pick up the slack. However the Vampire Princess didn't look like she felt like entering any battles.

"I've got what I came for," she said. "Let's get out of here." She suddenly smile a brilliant smile. "My show is on in half an hour. Has anybody seen my dog?"

Just then as if by fate her question was answered as the entire west wall of the warehouse disappeared in a flash of light and a massive wave of viscera and organs burst into the room. Walking in after the viscera was the last and greatest of the True Ancestors. Her costume which had seemed so silly previously had been transformed glowing bright white as incalculable amounts of prana rushed through it. A massive canine skeleton burst forth from the blood and organs and with no lungs let loose a howl that caused the ground to rupture from its passing.

This was no match for Arcueid Brunestud as with a clap of her hands the air around her swirled reflecting the sound at the beast causing the bones to splinter before they instantly re-healed. The White Princess scanned the room locking gazes with both friend and foe before she fixed her gaze back on the socket less head of Primate Murder.

With a spectacular burst of prana the bloody remains on the ground reformed into the shape of the White Wolf but this time his form had changed. His growth had not increased and he levelled out at around sixteen metres but his fur was not there to be replaced by armour of bones that covered rotting, emaciated muscle that constantly dripped blood. Only one eye sat in its socket shining a blazing yellow with no discernible emotion. His mouth opened up wider then his face in a weird parallel of a grin displaying teeth that outnumbered a shark. Somehow despite appearing close to death, the very presence of the beast caused painful bursts of fear inside the chests of everybody in the room. Except one.

"Primy did that mean lady hurt you," the youthful looking Dead Apostle Ancestor said. "When you were being such a good boy," she said. "We're done so we can get you home and I will make you a special dinner." She patted the putrid, gore filled skin of the beast. "Yes. Just how you like it," she said smiling. "Then we can watch our programme. If we wait too much longer we're going to miss it." For a moment it looked like the beast was going to attack its own master, then without warning it shrunk to the size of a small dog and was abruptly picked up by Altrouge.

"I have no wish to continue this fight tonight," the Dead Apostle Ancestor said looking at Arcueid. "If you try to battle me then I will show you what it means to be outnumbered and outclassed."

"Outnumbered maybe," Arcueid conceded. "Outclassed never. Let's call it a night guys," she said turning and leaving the opponents. The other three followed her out, Nine reforming as he did so.

"That was quite unusual," Ishtar said as soon as they were out of earshot. "I fully expected you to want to continue the fight."

"I'm afraid not," Arcueid said sheepishly holding up a glove revealing several tears in the fabric. "My things broke and I don't think I could beat Primate Murder without them. How did the rest of you go?"

"It was a stalemate," Shiki admitted. "Couldn't hit him and couldn't let him hit me."

"I was winning," Ishtar said. "The red guy is pretty tough though."

"I managed to land a blow against the heel," Nine said modestly. "His master may have to waste a command seal to fix it."

"And they managed to destroy another of the lesser grails," Arcueid pondered. "I wonder how many more there are."

Suddenly from the shadows an instantly recognizable black cat appeared. Her pom-poms swaying back and forth as she ran to Arcueid and leapt onto the True Ancestors shoulder. Arcueid kept quiet as the feline placed her head on the True Ancestors. A few seconds later Arcueid jerked causing Shirou's familiar to lose balance and tumble into the arms of Arcueid.

"Shirou is down," Arcueid said. "And Aoko is on the brink of death."

Without any conversation or consultation the four of them simultaneously dashed in the direction of the Magicians home moving at speeds born of worry.

xxx

"Being awake hurts," the magician said as he put one wobbly step in front of the other. To his side Rin and Satsuki were still helping him but their speed was not that much greater than a normal humans walking pace. Staggering forward as his house came into sight. Shirou pumped a minute portion of prana into the wall and the defences around the house fell. When they got inside they were treated to the sight of the enforcer trying to create a makeshift tourniquet from the living room curtains.

The three of them just stared at her dumbly for a while. "I liked those curtains," Shirou said eventually causing Rin to physically restrain herself from punching an injured man. "Get me blue bottle," Shirou said feebly gesturing towards the kitchen.

Rin reacted first dashing into the closet leaving Satsuki to support Shirou. The executor whose name none of them knew saw them and immediately went to speak to them but was stopped by a weak upraised hand from Shirou. After a few more seconds Rin ran back into the room carrying a huge collection of bottles in her arms. From whiskey, and vodka to beer and even tequila the bottles resembled an alcoholic's paradise but none of them were blue.

"Is he Irish by any chance?" the executor remarked but Shirou was not in the mood and he took off limping into the kitchen. Suddenly the door slammed open causing the magician to wince in pain at the loud noise and collapse to his knees.

"Shirou are you okay," the True Ancestor yelled out counterproductively.

"Shall I get the blue bottle," the much more sedate voice of nine rang out causing the magician to gratefully nod.

The servant disappeared into the kitchen and returned seconds later with a blue bottle containing a blue liquid causing Rin to frown. He poured out a capful of the liquid and offered it to Shirou who gratefully accepted.

The change that came over him was sudden and dramatic. One moment Shirou was kneeling on the floor and the next he was standing up and inspecting Aoko Aozaki. Inspecting her eyes and laying a hand upon her head he swiftly came to a conclusion.

"Gem please Rin," he said holding out an outstretched arm. At the magus' hesitation he sighed. "I'll compensate you later but right now she's touch and go Rin." After only a brief moment his classmate handed him a precious gem full of high quality mana which Shirou instantly drained and performed magical healing on the neurons of his sister's body. While the poison was in her system for an almost insignificant amount of time it had caused enough pain to short out a lot of her nerves. "A hand," he said to his servant and he ignored the gasps as he received a piece of chaos in the form of a fist. Pumping more prana into it he felt it start to become malleable. With no indecision he shaped it into a spike and shoved it into her skull via the eye.

The gasps of horror came again, primarily from Rin but Shirou thought he could feel Satsuki as well but he focused on the procedure and soon enough the chaos that Nine consisted of was flowed into the brain of his sister reforming the broken connections. With one last motion Shirou drew Nolava II from inside him and stabbed it into the chest of his sister.

Turning away from the operation Shirou was beset by looks of concern and a look of revulsion from Rin, although Shirou couldn't blame her, watching somebody get their brain pierced through their eye was never the most pleasant of sights.

"She should be fine," Shirou answered their unspoken questions. "She will regain full cognizance with time.

"How much time," his servant responded immediately jumping to the heart of the matter.

Shirou grimaced. "Not enough," he admitted. "I can't hurry the healing of head wounds."

"So we've lost a master and a servant today," Satsuki said. "But we got rid of a master and two servants," she continued stolidly looking on the bright side.

"About that," Shirou said. "Neither Heracles or Ortenrosse are dead."

The table was quiet for a moment after that bombshell and then the voices hit all at once.

"What do you mean they aren't dead?"

"There was no body left behind."

"How could they survive?"

"Sorry to be the bearer of bad news," Shirou said stoically ignoring the renewed pounding in his head. "But he was an archer, they normally have magic resistance. No matter how powerful those gems were it was not enough to actually kill him."

"So he's still alive," Satsuki said.

"But missing his armour," Shirou rebutted. "I thoroughly destroyed it beyond the ability of any command seal to fix."

"Was his armour that bad," Arcueid asked inquisitively.

Shirou just nodded. "Anyway he disappeared after Rin's gems hit that spot. While I admit to being quite out of it at the present time the only way he could have left unseen was by command seal."

"I can confirm that Master," Rin's servant said appearing from beside the magus, his armour crushed inwards as if he had been hit by a train. "I didn't see him leave the explosion at all."

"Where were you anyway," Rin asked her servant irritably.

"I apologize master," Saber said bowing. "My sword was unable to harm him and he hits a lot harder than I expected," the servant said speaking with no noticeable signs of pain in his voice despite his armour's noticeably concave shape.

"I'm going to get some rest," Shirou said causing the conversation to draw to a close. "You," he said pointing at the executor. "Nine will show you to your room." A massive wave of exhaustion hit him and Shirou stumbled almost unnoticeably. "Help me to my room," he said to his servant. "And Rin," he said pointing at the magus his voice dangerously low. "I said nothing tonight." And with those last words the only awake True Magician went off to rectify the situation.

xxx

 _A sense of dread ran through Shirou as he beheld the room that he found himself in. He instinctively knew that he stood inside a temple dedicated to the goddess of War and Love Ishtar. Gold covered the room and formed into statues depicting the Goddess in both warlike and lewd positions. Various spectacular artworks littered the room a testament to the finest of mankind, each one of them surpassing every modern masterpiece. A plush red carpet covered the floor dyed in a vermillion so bright you could hardly see the blood that splattered on the ground._

 _Two figures stood in the centre of the room, a man and a woman. The woman inspired a potent feeling of familiarity within Shirou and with a start he realized that it was Ishtar. She had her bow drawn and pointed at the man although her fingers trembled as she aimed it. The man took a solitary step forward and instantly thousands of arrows were fired towards him, each with the potency to destroy mountains and remodel the landscape._

 _But the man did not falter under the onslaught. Instead Shirou watched in disbelief as every single arrow curved away from him. A glint was all that clued the Magician into what the man was doing. With the utmost of incredulity he realised that the man was manipulating small bodies of water in such a way that each and every single light arrow was refracted around him causing ever thing else in the room except him to be obliterated. The mind that it would require to compute the vectors of thousands of arrows was immense and Shirou watched as the man raised on arm, idly noticing that there were signs of scales on his hands before he felt the small amount of water compress into a form that he had never witnessed before and in the next instant Ishtar was pierced through her ribs by a bolt of water._

 _She coughed blood and made to draw her bow again when the blood from her mouth reversed and impacted on her chest causing her to go tumbling backwards. She turned it into a graceful manoeuvre landing on her feet and in a second her bow had taken the form of a boat and was blasting toward the man._

 _He barely reacted however as a pillar of ice rose from the ground and he hopped off as the boat closed on his location. The boat burst through the temple and took off into the sky as the goddess engaged the man in hand to hand combat. It took only a few seconds before Shirou had concluded that whatever skill in combat his servant had was quite degraded or she had been sandbagging far too much. Shirou wouldn't have put any solid money on Arcueid even being able to beat her._

 _And it still wasn't enough. The man fought defensively with minimal effort he managed to redirect the blows until Ishtar froze for a second and the man launched a single solid strike that caused an audible crack as he struck her ribs._

 _Ishtar fell back spitting out more blood that fell upon the deck of her boat. Gazing up at the man she asked a single question containing a single word. "Why?"_

" _Why," the man said his voice containing an undercurrent of hatred. "Why you ask," he said shaking his head. "When you caused devastation amongst the land in retribution for the crimes of a single man I warned you but forgave you," he said his voice full of scorn._

 _The goddess got to her feet but the man thrust his palm out and a lance of her own blood struck her chest piercing through her lungs. "When you dragged the entire domain of fertility down to the underworld, I saved you and yet rebuked you giving you another chance to make up for all the evil you did."_

 _The woman pulled out the spear from her lungs and dodged back drawing her bow again but there was an audible snap and Shirou could make out the sight of broken fingers. "When you set the Bull upon the human world because of the rejection of a single man, I begged you Inanna. I begged you to see reason. To show mercy."_

 _The woman collapsed and to Shirou's surprise he could see regret in her eyes and pain. "And finally when you decided to kill of humanities final defence against the gods I gave you an ultimatum." Shirou then managed to get a good look at the man's face and he was struck by a realisation. All this time he had though that the opponent hated his servant, but the endless tears pouring down his face told a different story. Suddenly his hatred of the goddess became hatred of himself for his actions, his slow killing of her became his reluctance to do the deed, and his mocking denouncement of her deeds became a fervent wish that there had been another way._

" _I'm sorry Inanna," the man said as water formed all around him._

" _I'm sorry Enki," the goddess responded and Shirou realised that despite having spoken the words did not reach each other. Each god remained set in their ways unable to change their course and a moment later the deed was done and there was only one god on the boat._

 _Enki fell down to his knees and started to cry and at the same time Shirou felt a deep ache in his chest as if his heart had been pierced by infinite icicles. Crouching down he stared at the face of the God of water and like a still pond he looked into his reflection._

 _xxx_

Shirou woke up in the middle of the night filled with nothing but pain and memories as he stared at the scales on his hand.

 **Author Note: This chapter took a long time to write due to busy days at work.**

 **The Rupture: In the end Lorelei stood no chance against both the Dead Apostle Ancestor and his servant. One thing that I do tend to do is portray deaths as either glorious or anti-climatic. Such is the nature of endings I think.**


	49. Chapter 49

Rin woke up to an altogether too familiar ceiling. It wasn't that she disliked the aesthetics of the house, or even its occupants, she contemplated as she slipped out of bed and made her way to the closet which contained a selection of her clothes that she had taken from her house. The problem was that Rin Tohsaka was a naturally proud and independent woman and even with all the good arguments for staying over sticking in her head the fact that she was relying on the goodwill of a classmate irked her. Especially since that classmate was Shirou Inke.

Rin did not like Shirou Inke. Despite obtaining very good grades rivalling her own he seemed to mock the concept of an honour student. The numerous times he didn't show up for school as well as his disposition whenever he did turn up gave the impression of a man who seemed to treat the whole experience as a joke, a person who appeared not to care about his future at all. Apparently everything she had known about her classmate had been a façade. Despite his outwardly flippant appearance he was a Magician, or at least a far superior magus, at her age. The list of his actual friends was also just as staggering; in the last few days she had seen him be friends with the White Princess and both that girl Satsuki as well as his butler Nine were obviously also powerful non-humans from what little she had seen of them. His offhanded comments about some of the things he had seen and done had put his acts of truancy in quite a different light and Rin was forced into the position of having to revaluate her acquaintance.

Gawain chivalrously left the room as she started to change from her pyjamas into her casual clothes. Now changed, she took a brief look outside and to her surprise she found it was unusually dark. Taking a brief look at the smiling cat clock that hung on her room she noticed that the timepiece displayed a time of four 'o clock. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes she noticed that the despite the early hour and the exertions of the prior night she felt completely awake.

Sighing Rin briefly brushed her hair and headed downstairs. While she wasn't comfortable commandeering Shirou's kitchen, especially given the fierce battles that were generally fought over its custody, there was a communal coffee maker that was kept in the dining room that she had taken advantage of the past few days. Gawain followed behind her as she headed downstairs to the dining room.

However before she had even reached the coffee machine she stopped as a strong and yet unfamiliar smell hit her nostrils. Moving forward again slowly she slipped into the dining room and was confronted by a sight that caused her eyes to widen. Sitting at the dining room facing away from her was Shirou dressed in a black trench coat, an item of attire that was unusually different from his school uniform or the mottled grey shirt and pants that he wore out at night. The table at which he sat was littered with empty bottles of alcohol. Despite Rin's relatively little experience with the stuff she was able to tell that the amount would have easily kill an ordinary human.

"Hello Rin," he said as she entered the room and the magus was slightly startled to hear how clear his voice was, despite the copious amounts of empty bottles around him. "You're up early today," he said continuing and Rin noticed vaguely that there was a slight lilt missing from his tone that caused his words to sound far flatter than usual.

"Not early enough to be able to see you sober," Rin retorted trying to ignore the wrongness of the atmosphere. "What is with your clothes anyway," she continued as she watched him turn to her revealing black pants and a shirt as he did so.

"They belonged to my father," Shirou said glaring bemusedly down at his get-up as he did so. He stood up without a hint of inebriation and walked up to a cabinet in the side of the room. A snap of his fingers and the door unlocked to reveal an interior stocked with bottles and bottles of liquor.

"Hey," Rin said as she stared worriedly at a man who seemed very determined to drink himself to death. "We still need you to fight the Grail War. You can't do that while drunk."

Shirou just gazed at the magus with some hint of amusement. "Drunk? Rin, really? I'm barely sozzled," he said smiling. Swiping two glasses off a nearby cabinet he poured a glass of a clear liquid into both and settled down into his seat holding one glass and placing the other on the table away from him.

"I don't drink," Rin said immediately.

"If this war keeps its course we'll have you drinking by the end of it," Shirou said draining his glass. "Does your servant want anything?" he continued gesturing to the space where Gawain stood dematerialised.

"You can see him," Rin remarked to herself. She hadn't heard of any magecraft that would have been able to detect a servant. Of course if Shirou was what she thought he was then he would have more than just magecraft to detect her servant.

"Perks of being a magician," Shirou said anticlimactically confirming her suspicions but a seed of doubt remained within her mind.

"When you say the word magician," she started.

"I possess a True Magic Rin," Shirou said seriously. "I'll admit it was fun seeing your face when I did my magic tricks but I never once lied."

Rin's thoughts went a million miles an hour as she processed this information. She had actually correct; Shirou had been a Magician since middle school. She silently revaluated her classmate and decided that it didn't really matter much in the face of this Holy Grail war.

"If you're not going to drink and your servant is not going to drink then I will have it," Shirou said downing the other glass with barely any restraint. His right hand shook minutely as he set the glass down on the table but the shaking was enough to draw Rin's gaze to the changes in his body.

"Are those scales?" the young magus said confusion evident in her voice. As she looked closer at Shirou she noticed that there were also slight indications of scales on his face and down his neck.

Shirou sighed deeply and reclined in the chair. Swivelling the chair to face Rin and her invisible servant he flexed his hand and a bottle flew into it. Popping open the cork he poured himself a glass of a deep red liquid.

"Rin," he said. "Did I ever tell you about my father?"

"I don't think we were ever close enough to have this conversation," she said carefully. "You never struck me as the kind of person to just blurt out these sorts of things."

"You refuse to leave me alone and you refuse to drink," Shirou said and with a wave of his hand water coalesced into the frozen form of a chair. Rin started to sit on it but stopped as she felt the cold radiating from it. Wisely she decided to stand and see where Shirou was going with this topic.

"My father's name was Kiritsugu Emiya," Shirou said taking a swig of his wine. "At one point he was the most feared assassin in the moonlight world." Shirou's words were hollow and without inflection as if he was reciting a grocery list rather than divulging a somewhat sordid past. "Honestly while I loved the man and will be forever grateful for what he did for me, if I met him on the street for the first time I probably would have killed him." He focused on Rin again ignoring the sheen of sweat on the forehead of the Tohsaka heiress. "Kiritsugu made it his life's goal to be a hero and save as many lives as possible. He lived by a cold equation, weighing all lives as equal and always discarding the lighter total. In some ways despite always having good motives he was always as big a monster as some of the magi he killed."

"But you said he only killed evil magi," Rin protested. "He only killed magi that crossed the line."

"Where is the line Rin?" Shirou asked. "Personally I do not regard you as a proper magus." Cutting off Rin's indignant reply he continued. "I do not regard anybody who has not yet committed an atrocity as a proper magus." Shirou poured another glass of wine and handed it to the female magus. "Drink," he said with such a tone of command that Rin had it to her lips before she could even think of refusing.

At his expectant look she took a small sip and a pleasant warmness seeped down her throat. She took another tentative sip as she watched Shirou take a box out of his pocket and lay it down on the table.

"What is that?" she said glancing down at the small wooden box.

"A small wooden box," Shirou said with a trace of humour that quickly faded. "It contains the Barthomeloi crest," he said responding to Rin's unanswered question.

"What are you going to do with it," the young magus said trying to wrap her head around the fact that an item this prestigious was just lying on the table in front of her.

"Either return it to the family or destroy it," Shirou said flippantly causing Rin's eye to twitch at disbelief and annoyance. "On one hand the Barthomeloi family are persistent hunters of Dead Apostles and have done more to hold back the scourge than any other family in existence. On the other hand they are the head of the magus community and thus are somewhat responsible for the cruelties committed by magi of the association."

At Shirou spoke there was a constant undercurrent of frustration in his voice but by the end of it he just appeared tired. "Isn't this a joke, Rin? Magi kill vampires and Magi become vampires and both prey on humans. It's such a fucked up system and that's not even the worst part." Shirou looked Rin dead in the eyes and vermillion bored into azure. "The worst part is that it is simply a symptom of how badly humanity is failed. Ultimately in the end Dead Apostles and Magi were both human that lost their morals and started to oppress their fellow humans. That is the worst part of Kiritsugu's dream," Shirou said sounding bitter. "It's pointless saving humans because they just turn around and kill each other. Killing half of the people to save the other half doesn't matter if it is the wrong half."

Shirou had been getting more worked up as he continued his rant but as soon as he finished he collapsed back into the chair. The room remained silent for a while but then an interruption came from an unexpected source.

"You're incorrect," Rin's servant said materialising by his master.

"Saber," Rin said, more out of surprise than anger.

"Master, please forgive me, but I cannot let his misconception go uncorrected," the servant said. At Rin's tentative nod he continued. "I agree that indiscriminate killing is not the way to save the world," he said seriously. "Humans have in this age conquered all other phantasmal beasts and even Gaia herself. The one thing that they have yet to conquer is their own nature. That is also where your father failed. A hero does not have to kill monsters or save humans; there are many who do those things that cannot be considered heroes. A hero is a person who inspires others to follow in his footsteps. A hero is a person who shows other humans how they can be better. Humans do not need to be saved; they need to be encouraged to save themselves."

Quiet reigned over the room as Shirou and Rin stared at the blonde knight. Rin was wondering what set off the unusually quiet servant when Shirou suddenly let out a chuckle. "You know Kiritsugu participated in the last Grail War," he said causing both Rin and the servant's head to whip towards him. "The servant he summoned was also a blonde knight, about this tall," he said gesturing with his hand, "and had a sword very much like your own. I was just wondering if that was the person who inspired you," Shirou said smiling widely as he put down the glass of wine.

"Wait your father fought in the last Grail War," Rin said caught off guard by the new information. "Do you know…?"

"Sorry Rin," Shirou interrupted. "I've had enough about talking with the past for today. My father kept a journal of the events of the war. I'll look for it later." He turned towards the door. "Arcueid stop eavesdropping and come inside," he said and in less than an instant the True Ancestor stood in the room looking as if she had always been there.

"Sorry Shirou," the White Princess said. "I arrived halfway through and decided not to interrupt."

"Its fine Arcueid," Shirou said as he stood up from the chair. "I'm afraid to inform you that we are running out of time. Last night two of the grails that I created were destroyed." Arcueid nodded at that looking quite serious. "In addition I'm not sure what other damage was done during the night." Shirou slipped the box that contained the crest inside his pocket. "In particular I want to check on the church and track down Gilgamesh."

"Gilgamesh?" Rin asked recognizing the name of the oldest hero in history.

"He was a servant in the prior year war," Shirou explained dropping yet another revelation on the unamused magus. "He also possesses a tool that will help us with our dog problem."

"You mean Primate Murder," Arcueid said tilting her head. "Gil has a way to beat him?"

"Yup," Shirou said and he strode towards the door with Arcueid following him. "Wait," he said to himself while stopping. "I have two things I need to do before I leave. Get Nine to make you some breakfast or something."

"When you leave I'm coming with," Rin said while Arcueid nodded. "You may be a magician but you could still be outnumbered or taken by surprise. Besides I'm not entirely sure how sober you actually are."

Shirou smiled genuinely and Rin for the first time contemplated that he could be quite handsome if it wasn't for his terrible personality. "That's fine Rin," he said. "We'll go as two master/servant pairs. Arcueid, can I ask you to watch the house while we're gone? You're still the strongest in the house and the only defence if Primate Murder arrives."

The True Ancestor again nodded but she didn't look happy. "Alright," Shirou said as he stepped out of the room applying the concept of concealment to himself as he teleported to the room of his house's newest occupant. Appearing silently in the room he was slightly surprised and impressed to see a small reaction to his appearance as the enforcer who sat on the bed turned her head in his direction. However she quickly turned back to examining her gloves due to not seeing anything. Stealthily moving into her blind spot Shirou waited for the moment that she looked most immersed.

"Quite an interesting pair…" Shirou began but got no further. The blow came swiftly and while it wasn't quite at the level of a servant it was absolutely exceptional for a mere human. Catching the blow in his hand he nearly winced in pain as he realised that the blow hit with much more force than he expected. He observed the runes along her gloves and he realised them to be Celtic in origin and well applied.

"These are quite an interesting pair of gloves you have there," Shirou continued as if the interruption had not happened. "I see you're quite a competent enforcer and yet you don't carry yourself like Lorelei's private forces."

"I was requested for a mission here by the Vice-director," the woman said.

"The Vice-Director is dead," Shirou replied back indifferently. "Therefore there is no obligation to stay. What will you choose to do now?"

"I will stay and fight," the enforcer replied instantly. "If they win then many people will die. I may not be able to do much but…" Shirou cut her off by raising his hand.

"You're an incredibly skilled magus," he said. "One whose head is also sitting correct on her shoulders, there is no reason to put yourself down. I belong to a group of four masters and their servants. Feel free to take a walk around my house and converse with any of them. Try to get into a group. You really don't want to try going this war alone."

"What is your name anyway," the magus said causing Shirou to stretch his memory to determine if he had ever mentioned it. "Shirou Inke. "I'm first Gen," he said to the enforcers unspoken question. "And your name is?"

"Bazett Fraga McRemitz," the magus replied.

"A Fraga," Shirou said as he turned around and left the room. He idly wondered if she possessed the Fraga's legendary bloodline but decided that it wasn't any of his business unless she decided to join him on his excursions.

Moving on Shirou decided to meet up with Satsuki. His friend had asked him about the Mercury crystals and he surmised that whatever reason she had for wanting to examine them was due to Sumire. Even if Shirou could not think of a practical use for them didn't mean that the older Vampire could not. Checking the time Shirou winced as he realised how early it was. Satsuki was not going to be happy to be woken up at this time.

Sighing he shrugged his shoulders and decided to get it over with. Technically Satsuki was the person who asked for his help and he did not know how long his business today would take. Knocking on her door he was unsurprised to hear no response. A small amount of water coalesced from the air in front of him and with a wave of his hand it was inserted inside the lock. With one further twist of his hand the door unlocked and he slowly slid the door open.

Satsuki laid spread out all over the bed in a state of deep slumber. Half of the covers lay on the floor of the room revealing her cute blue pyjamas.

"Satsuki," Shirou called out to absolutely no response. "I have to talk with you Satsuki." He waited a few more moments but his friend barely stirred. "Satsuki wake up!" he said far louder and then waited to see no further response. Sighing Shirou conjured ice water above the bed and let it fall on her, or at least he attempted to. At the last moment the young Lunarian rolled out of the bed and landed on her feet facing Shirou in a ready stance. The thing that most annoyed Shirou was that her eyes were not even open yet.

"What, what's going on," Satsuki said opening her eyes and looking around frantically. Seeing the wet bed she focused on Shirou with an accusing look in her eye. "You tried to soak me," she said reproachfully

"It appears you have somehow gained Arcueids usual dislike of waking up in the mornings," Shirou said. "At least your reflexes have gotten better."

"Shirou, you better tell me why you woke me up right now or I swear to…"

"Yesterday you were asking about the crystals that I got from ORT," Shirou started cutting her off. "Follow me and I'll show you them to you."

Satsuki grumbled but she got out of bed. "I'll be out in a minute Shirou. I just have to change."

"Alright," the magician said. "Meet me in the pantry." And with that he turned around and left.

xxx

Ten minutes later Shirou was relaxing in the pantry that lay adjacent to the kitchen when Satsuki came walking in. She had dressed in a very practical jeans and a t-shirt and she looked like she had done something to her hair to try and hide the fact that she just woke up.

"Wow," she said as she scanned the shelves seeing their full-stocked stores of food. "I don't think I've ever been in here. But why would you store these crystals in the pantry. Shouldn't you store them in your workshop?"

"You mean the shed," Shirou began. "The shed has never been my workshop. It's the place I conduct experiments and store completed mystic codes that I don't mind people seeing. Arcueid and Sumire used to drop by all the time and even you showed up a few times. Have you ever seen a single scrap of my research notes," Shirou said as he walked towards a random selection of shelves. Holding up one finger he rubbed his thumb against the wooden ledge to reveal a selection of runes. Shirou touched a few of the runes and they lit up before briefly fading and a second later the floor shimmered to reveal a square hole.

"Only Nine and I ever come into the pantry," Shirou explained. "Please don't abuse your knowledge of the location of my workshop to intrude upon my research time in future."

"Why the secrecy Shirou?" Satsuki asked. "It seems uncharacteristically magus-like of you." Judging by the magician's facial expression it looked like she had hit a nerve.

"Honestly it's not really out of a desire to keep my research secret. More like I sometimes need time to myself to relax and do research." Shirou smiled sheepishly. "Honestly I really like you guys but sometimes I just need a break."

Satsuki nodded at his reason and then watched as Shirou jumped down the hole. It evidently wasn't very deep as within two seconds of jumping in Shirou was already calling her down. Satsuki acquiesced to his request and she quickly found herself in what appeared to be a white tiled and well-lit underground bunker. Multiple doors littered the room but Shirou didn't hesitate in guiding her to a blue door in the corner of the room.

He pushed the door and it opened without the need for key or password. Walking forward the sight that greeted the pair was enough to make Satsuki do a double take. The room was about six by six metres and half of it was covered in various flora that Satsuki only recognized a portion of. The other half of the room consisted entirely of crystallised vegetation.

"That is a lot of crystals," Satsuki remarked.

"The stuff has an inherent tendency to spread," Shirou revealed. "But there is a limit; otherwise it would have occupied earth long ago. When the proximity between Type-Mercury and the crystals passes a certain threshold the crystals will sharply decrease in toughness due to Gaia reasserting that the material cannot exist." Shirou walked up to the crystals and picked up a loose one before presenting it to Satsuki. "Can your Reality Marble get anything off of this?"

Satsuki picked the crystal up generating the primordial soup around it but the crystal didn't dissolve at all. "It's still not being damaged," she said. "Are you sure this has decreased in toughness."

"Trust me Satsuki, it's a lot weaker," Shirou said. He took back the crystal and Satsuki watched as ice formed over his hand and arms and his frozen fist pressed down upon the small crystal. After a few more seconds a shattering sound rang out and Shirou opened his hand to reveal crushed crystalline shards. "Can you get anymore DNA from this," he said.

Satsuki took the crystalline shards but she was still unable to feel anything with her reality marble despite bathing it in the liquid. At Satsuki's negative reply Shirou nodded. "The crystals that we have taken cannot be considered alive. Only when they are with ORT can they be considered to be part of a living creature."

"But Sumire had an entire creature made of crystal," Satsuki said. At Shirou's look of confusion she explained her confrontation with the monster yesterday.

"That's pretty impossible," the magician stated.

"I know what I saw Shirou," Satsuki said defensively.

"The crystals lack the programming to ever be able to act as a creature," Shirou announced. "They honestly have far more in common with a virus or a fungus than a living creature."

Satsuki's eyes widened as a thought hit her. "Could it be symbiotic," she said.

"Not outside the realm of possibility," Shirou said. "And after all once you have eliminated the impossible…"

Shirou didn't get to finish his sentence as an alarm sounded out through the compound at that point. Leaving Satsuki to her own devices he teleported up to the front door immediately. Placing his hand on the alarm panel by the door he checked the report from the alarm and shock ran through his veins as the words 'critically injured intruder' flashed through the screen.

Slamming open the door and running outside he was stopped dead in his tracks. Before him standing holding a briefcase with his one intact arm, but with most of his torso missing and his throat destroyed stood the unmistakable figure of Sherlock Holmes.

 **Author Note: Still busy at work. This story has started to fatigue me. But I'm on the final few days so... keep moving forward I guess.**

 **Guest: I would argue that the word incoherent is too strong a word. I am well aware that this story is flawed. It's my first one and I've been writing a lot of chapters based on pure momentum. Still you say you enjoyed it so that counts as a win in my book.**

 **Otaku97: His thoughts on the matter were mostly contained in this chapter. He actually has no need for anything that he could get from her corpse and defiling it would make him no better than a typical magus in his mind.**

 **SentinalSlice: Shirou has actually witnessed a lot of concepts. He'll witness a few more before it's over. But he would not get along well with Emiya. Not to mention to release him from Alaya's contract he would have to physically invade Alaya's realm and track down the original Emiya. Not a walk in the park.**

 **Please Read and Review.**


	50. Chapter 50

Shirou wasted no time in rushing to the Ruler class servant. He immediately started to examine his wounds but the servant shook him off. A burst of prana and Shirou saw a command seal on his exposed skin disappear and he seemed to get better momentarily. He made to speak but no words came out.

"Len," Shirou called out and a few seconds later his feline companion was at his side. "Can you enter his mind?" The cat didn't say anything but as the ruler servant collapsed to his knees Shirou's familiar went very still as she fought to access the conscious mind drawing extra prana from her master as she did so. One final spark of prana burst out and the servant lifted the briefcase before giving Shirou one last look in the eyes as he shimmered out leaving the dead body of an entirely different person behind.

Shirou breathed in deeply at the sight in front of him. "A pseudo servant," he remarked with wonder despite the horror of the situation. "I didn't think that it was possible." Shirou's surprise was well merited. He had long wondered if it would be possible for a heroic spirit to possess a human but he had long ago discarded the idea as impracticable due to the relative fragility of modern era humans. Now that he saw that unlikely sight in front of him a portion of his mind was wondering how it had been pulled off.

"Nine," Shirou said and a moment later his servant appeared before him. "Do you recognize this man?"

Nine studied the dead body before nodding his head once. "He was a local police officer who went missing about a week ago," Nine said. "His family was quite distraught."

Shirou swallowed hard. That was not what he wanted to hear. "Find some way of delivering the body to them. Also provide them with enough money for them to live comfortably."

His servant nodded and her picked up the body and carried it inside and off their lawn. A moment later Shirou felt a bunch of taps against his legs and he looked down to see Len knocking her paws against his shins. Lowering himself to scratch her head he silently asked whether she had acquired the memories. His response was a smug tilt of the head from his independent familiar which meant that she did and that she would be expecting fish tonight.

Shirou chuckled and then knelt on the grass moving so that he could stare into the eyes of his familiar. As their foreheads almost touched Shirou conceded his waking mind to her and allowed her to inject various illusions into the image centres of his brain.

A brief moment of time passed before the entire series of events played through his head leaving the magician blinking in surprise. Then after a brief moment of disorientation a chuckle slipped through his lips. He tried to contain it but couldn't as his shoulders shook with mirth. Then like a dam bursting open Shirou clutched his stomach and howled his laughter to the heavens. After a few second his laughter toned down to a chuckle and he took deep breaths of air. He straightened up and took a look at the briefcase that lay in front of him… and collapsed into a storm of snickers that had him on the ground battling to breathe.

In a few minutes Shirou was able to get a hold of himself and he stood up wiping off grass from his father's trenchcoat.

"Are you okay Shirou," the voice of his favourite True Ancestor announced her presence behind him and he turned to look and gave out a grin while shaking off the spasms of humour that inflicted themselves upon his body.

"Yeah Arc I'm fine," he said. "I just got some new information. Not all of it was good but it was deeply satisfying."

"Okay," the White Princess said with the implied question in her voice.

"Mr. Holmes ran into the seventh master on our side," Shirou said. "He determined quite rightly that she should be considered hostile and decided to attack. Unfortunately the Master and Servant combination were too strong a combination and Mr. Holmes escaped with fatal injuries but not before robbing the opposing servant of one of his greatest weapons. "

Shirou lifted the briefcase on the lawn and with a deft hand movement he summoned a trickle of water inserting it into the lock and causing the briefcase to pop open. Arcueid craned her head forward to see what the briefcase contained and was slightly disappointed to see that it contained nothing more than a black and gold bodysuit with annoyingly large pauldrons and what looked to be a red feather boa attached.

"Looking unimpressed Arcueid," Shirou said picking up on her mood. "It does look a bit gaudy but I assure you that it's power more than makes up for its looks." Shirou removed the article from the briefcase and held it aloft. "Behold Kavacha and Kundala, the second strongest conceptual defence I've ever seen."

"What's the strongest," Arcueid asked eying the suit of armour.

"I fought Heracles last night," Shirou said resolving to give her a recap of the situation when he had time. "His conceptual defence was the strongest."

"Was it stronger than Achilles?" Arcueid queried.

"Yes," Shirou responded immediately folding the armour into the briefcase. "Nine," he said to his servant who immediately reappeared next to him. "Triple that money."

"Who was that dead body anyway," Arcueid said. "And how did he even get in here."

"That was the body that was being possessed by servant Ruler," Shirou said sealing the briefcase again.

"Is that even possible… Wait Ruler's dead," Arcueid said. "Who killed him?"

"The seventh master on our side," Shirou said turning around to head back inside with his vampiric friend following him. "He managed to swindle the armour from her servant by disguising himself as a Brahman priest. It is an act that I am genuinely impressed with," Shirou said with a lot of regard in his voice. "Unfortunately he was unable to deal with her two servants. Let's just say there was a Jack in the box that he wasn't expecting to come out."

"I don't get it," Arcueid replied immediately and Shirou spent a few moments trying to rephrase it without spoiling the joke when he saw Arcueid's smile and realised the True Ancestor was just screwing with him.

"Anyway," Shirou said. "The master didn't engage him but Holmes was very wary of her. Worse was for a brief moment I saw her eyes flash red."

"Seems we're getting a lot of that colour recently," Arcueid said eying his own pair. "Red eyes are the sign of phantasmal species. Demons, dragons, vampires, Gods," she finished eying up Shirou. "Red is not a human colour and that means that our seventh master is not human also. But that isn't the only thing that's bothering you."

"Hmm, you've gotten better at reading human emotions Arc," Shirou said deliberately deflecting the question.

"Nope, just yours," she responded. "Now spill."

"It's nothing," Shirou said downplaying his nervousness. "It's just her eyes weren't totally red. It leant towards a fuscia colour."

"You mean pink," Arc said.

"Yes, fuscia is a type of pink," Shirou replied patiently. "And for some reason that shade just," he snapped his fingers in irritation. "I have a feeling I've seen that exact shade before and I don't know where. It's driving me crazy."

"Hmm," Arcueid said as she walked by her side. "Anyway what are you going to do with armour?"

"Nothing. There is absolutely nothing that I can do with it before tonight," Shirou admitted. "Honestly being able to adapt a noble phantasm that is an integrated into a hero's legend and turning it into a 'normal' suit of armour would earn me a sealing designation, the fact that I'm even contemplating right now how I can do it is because it is a conceptual defence and thus falls directly under the capacity of my magic." Shirou halted at the door. "Besides I already have a lot to do today. Are you coming with me Arc?"

"Sure," Arcueid said. "Didn't you invite Rin as well? I haven't spoken to her yet and I always like meeting new people."

Shirou inclined his head. "Yes I did, didn't I? I only had a few things to do before I left." Shirou frowned. "I've left Satsuki alone in my workshop yet somehow I don't feel any compulsion to go back and check one her. That is quite unusual for me."

"Do you know what is wrong," Arcueid asked with a slight note of concern.

"Probably it would be inconvenient for a story if I were to enter too soon," Shirou surmised. "I could overcome it, but I don't think that it would be the most advantageous thing to do. So far Andersons plot has led to a favourable outcome for Satsuki and I don't want to do anything that could endanger her life."

Arcueid nodded sharing his thoughts. Satsuki, while strong was the weakest member of the three of them and both acknowledged that they would go out of their way to protect her.

The two of them stepped into the dining room to see Rin staring wide-eyed at the body lying on the table. Shirou just turned and gave Nine a deadpan look to which his servant responded with a smile. "I'll explain on the way," he said to Rin cutting off the magus before she could even get a word in as he turned around and left the room.

xxx

Five minutes later Rin was nodding her head as Shirou concluded the story of Sherlock's confrontation with the seventh Master. For once Shirou had deliberately chosen not to withhold any information and he had instead shared the entire story. Rin had remained silent throughout the entire retelling but there were noticeable signs of stress by the end of it.

"Fine," she said. "It looks like we're going to be fighting six more dead apostles and their servants as well as this mysterious seventh master. Well we've officially hit rock bottom. The only way is up."

"That's the spirit Rin," Arcueid said. "Starting from tonight we're going to crush the competition. Isn't that right Shiki?"

"That's right Arcueid," her servant said materialising next to her. "I'll be sure to kill at least one tonight."

"Shiki," Rin said ruminating on that name to herself. "Should you be saying that out loud?"

"There is literally no way that a servant or master could sneak up on Shirou and I," Arcueid said. "And besides Shiki's in a different kaleidoscope."

"Gods damn it Arc," Shirou said raising his hand to his face. "I told you that's not how you say it."

"Wait you mean he's from a different parallel earth," Rin spluttered out.

Shirou turned to regard her with a scrutinizing look. "Yeah I met the local version a few years ago," he said. "I must say I didn't expect you to know much about the operation of parallel worlds Rin. I find myself presently surprised."

"Well my ancestor was apprenticed to him," Rin said. "He picked up some things and they've been passed down the family. But I seriously didn't think that the grail could do that."

"Well it was made by the old vampire," Shirou said. "I wouldn't be surprised to even meet my alternate future self."

"Isn't it a bit arrogant to assume that you would make it to the throne of heroes," Rin said eying up the magician next to her.

Shirou shrugged and Rin took the opportunity to ask another question that bothered her. "Do you know the identity of my servant?" she said referring to his ambiguous words to Gawain earlier.

"Some Arthurian knight," Shirou replied half-heartedly. "Honestly his armour and his sword gave that away. "I could probably discern his identity with my magic or make a better educated guess if I cared more."

"You don't care about the identity," Rin said with some surprise at him not attempting to get a leg up.

"We're allies Rin," Shirou said. "Besides knowing everything takes all the fun out of it. But I'll give it a go." Shirou paused for a moment and turned to regard the spot where the servant stood intangibly. "Hmm, not Mordred. Lancelot," Shirou said snapping his fingers and Rin felt a slight tremor of disgust from her servant. "Oh," the magician said somehow picking up on the servant's emotions. "Hello Gawain."

"You really have that whole Sherlock Holmes thing going on," Rin said before wincing at her poorly chosen words.

"Yeah," Shirou replied absentmindedly.

"Which one is Gawain," Arcueid said speaking up and breaking the mood.

"He's not in Monty Python, and Arc I swear to all the gods if you start quoting again I will shoot you," Shirou said causing the last remaining True Ancestor to close her mouth and pout.

"What is Monty Python?" Rin asked.

"Ask me after the war," Shirou replied. "We're here."

His announcement caused the others to abandon the conversation at the sight of the ruined and destroyed church.

"That is not good," Arcueid stated the obvious. "Wonder what happened here."

"Fairly certain the church is not going to stay neutral after this," to the others surprise Shiki spoke up. "Not that they were ever going to let the Ancestors run unchecked but after this they will certainly be bringing out their major players."

"I hope they've survived," Rin said. "What do you think Shirou? Shirou," she repeated looking towards the magician. But he wasn't paying Rin any attention. Instead his hands were clutched into fists and he was gritting his teeth as he stared at the church. "Are you okay Shirou," she said with some concern as she stared at him.

"Just peachy," he replied. "I just sensed somebody who I didn't want to meet."

"That's quite an impolite way to greet your reinforcements," a black haired woman appeared before them. She fixed them with one green and one pitch black eye.

"Fuck you Narbareck," Shirou said startling Rin. "Who did you kill that put you in such a good mood?"

"Didn't manage to finish anybody I'm afraid," the woman said letting out a haughty laugh. "I nearly managed to dismantle a robotic version of Dead Apostle number sixteen."

"Gransurg huh," Shirou contemplated. "How did he escape you?"

"The dawn arrived," Narbareck admitted. "He was strong; his metallic body was both fast durable and could recover just as fast as his original body. In addition his servant was an incredibly powerful mage. I had to go all out in order to fight them both with the help of Merem."

"Where is Merem anyway," Arcueid asked curiously.

"Recovering from his injuries," Narbareck answered. "He will be functional by tonight. We will collaborate with you in winning the war for your side.

"Have you got any way to neutralize the Beast of Gaia," Shirou asked hopefully.

"Can't you just Magic it out of existence," Narbareck said sarcastically. "Unfortunately there is no weapon that the church possesses that can kill that monster."

"You would need a weapon that could damage the very planet to destroy that creature," Shirou said. "Come Arc, Rin we've tarried enough. Narbareck I don't like you but we may need you to win this thing. Take care of yourself."

"If it's any consolation then I've always hated you also," the head of the burial squad said before her eye flash white and she disappeared from their sight.

"Where are we going now," Arcueid said.

"We're going to the swimming pool," Shirou said. "There's a regicide that I have to commit and a device I have to retrieve."

"Have you got any plans on how to beat Gilgamesh," Rin said. "You're not going to insist on fighting him one on one, are you?"

"No," Shirou said as he took off walking. "I don't think that even Arc could beat him solo. I don't have the necessary time to instil proper team tactics in you so Arc and I will take point, Shiki will look for the openings, you stick to range and Saber can flank him." Shirou stopped in his walk and turned to look at them very seriously. "If he takes out a red cylindrical weapon with a gold handle, turn around and run. That includes you Arcueid," Shirou said to the White Princess cutting off her response. "If you approach that weapon you will die."

The seriousness of his tone forestalled conversation for a while and the remaining walk to the indoor pool passed in silence. Despite the time of day the streets were clear of most signs of human life and there was an eerie feel in the air.

"Can you feel it," Arcueid questioned to her compatriots.

"Humans are living in fear," Shirou replied. "They can instinctively sense the danger on the streets and they think by staying inside they will be safe. This is not a nice sight."

Shirou lifted the collar of his trench coat to keep the chill of the air out and when he looked forward again they were standing in front of Exciting Splash. Nostalgia surged through his veins as he remembered the good times that he had there. There had been some days that he had almost lived there. It was also going to be both the first and the last place he saw Gilgamesh. His smile fell at the thought. Maybe he would acquire ownership after the war. If they managed to survive.

With no fragment of his humour remaining Shirou opened the door and stepped into the battlefield.

 **Author Note: This chapter took me a long time. Work and a general lack of inspiration lead me to create a chapter that in my opinion lacks luster.**

 **In addition I have an idea for a oneshot that I feel like I need to put down before I can write the next chapter. Sorry for that.**

 **LuckyKittens: Yes to all your questions.**

 **SentinalSlice: He does know. The reason is due to the fact that Alaya knows.**

 **Kindly read and review.**


	51. Gilgamesh vs Shirou

The setting of Exciting Splash was impressively mundane. Despite its quietness it bore intimate resemblance to the quiet mornings that Shirou used to spend here. More noticeably it was lacking the fear that permeated the rest of the city as if the owner's mere presence was enough to ensure the safety of all its inhabitants and to be fair it most likely was. Only the most powerful or suicidal would ever challenge the King of Heroes. It was therefore fortunate indeed that Shirou had never had a death wish. Without taking any detours Shirou headed to the main pool. It was both a suitably dramatic destination for their final fight as well as a battlefield that would put the advantage in Shirou's hands. If there was one thing to be said about Gilgamesh it was that he never liked to win unfairly in contrast to Shirou himself who would gladly win using whatever cheap methods.

Stepping into the pool room he got a sudden weird feeling that caused him to pause a bit.

"What's wrong," Arcueid said picking up on his unease.

"Nothing," Shirou said shaking his head. "Just thinking that this is the first time I'm in this room without my swimsuit. "It's pretty unusual, normally I would be underwater now," he said defending himself from Arcueid's disbelieving gaze.

"It is a rather strange choice of clothes Shirou," the unmistakeable voice of the King of Heroes appeared from the room. A moment later and he shimmered into existence in the process of drawing a familiar hat off his head. The Golden King was wearing a Hawaiian shirt as well as a pair of beach shorts and sunglasses. With one hand he drew down his sunglasses and levelled Shirou with the fullness of his gaze. "Or should I say Enki?" he enquired piercing deep into the soul of the magician.

"Shirou will do," he replied ignoring the sudden intake of air from Rin behind him. "Is there anything you want to say Gilgamesh?" he asked the King of Heroes. Despite their current animosity the two of them had been on good terms for the last few years and Shirou was slightly sad that it was going to end.

"Keep your guard up," Gilgamesh said as golden armour appeared around his body. "If you let down your guard you will die."

Shirou nodded seemingly in deep thought and then in the very next instant many thousands of needle-sharp spears of water bore down on the king. The majority of them bounced off his armour but each and every one that was aimed towards his face was immediately intercepted and broiled by countless bolts of lightning that emerged from dozens of golden discs that materialized into existence above Gilgamesh.

That was not the Golden King's only obstacle as the very instant that Shirou had launched his initial attack Arcueid had also charged forward, cratering the floor with sheer force she sprinted over the water at supersonic speeds with the aim of obliterating the king. However the King of Heroes instantly countered with a vast wave of weaponry that thrummed with noticeable power. Without hesitation they converged on the last True Ancestor whose arms lashed out creating a series of sonic booms. Weapons shattered as they impacted the White Princesses fists but in turn blood sprayed on the floor where the weapons managed to bite into her skin before their structural integrity failed. Fire and ice covered Arcueid while lightning struck at her body but through it all the True Ancestor proved herself to be the strongest in the world as she pressed forward towards the greatest king. Suddenly a sword bypassed her guard taking one of her hands off and she pierced through by hundreds of swords causing her to go stumbling back.

Gilgamesh had absolutely no time to even contemplate taking advantage of her weakened position as he was currently fending off the fourth Magician. Shirou had immediately teleported behind him and engaged him with the swords that had been bestowed upon him by Gilgamesh. At that range it was harder for the Golden King to send a barrage at him and any blade that came from the gate was immediately knocked off course by the water that surrounded him. Shirou and Gilgamesh had both owned swords before and practiced with them on occasion and thus it was a battle of two powerful amateurs that smashed swords together with some skill and much fury.

Sensing another presence behind him the king summoned a multitude of staves above his position that sent white hot flames down onto his opponents. Gilgameshes unseen opponent jumped back but the Magician matched the flames with his own water in a clash of elements not seen since the Age of the Gods. Icy water chilled and crushed the inferno then reared its head and smashed into Gilgamesh who rode the wave backwards allowing him to separate himself from Shirou. Swivelling on his heel he locked blades with the glowing knight that he had noticed while entering the room, who he quickly noted could not be called an amateur.

He would have been hard pressed to match the knight's powerful swings even if he was alone. With the backup that he now boasted a few moments too many locked in combat would mean his death as the beings that surrounded him would swiftly attack his blind spots. An invisible sword bypassed the knight's guard causing him to falter for a moment which Gilgamesh quickly followed up on by summoning lightning without form from his gate striking the knight causing him to briefly convulse.

Once again Gilgamesh wasn't able to follow up as hundreds of shields of great history and unmatched powers flared into being and were all subsequently shattered by the fist of an enraged ancestor. He stepped back out of range and found to his slight horror that the floor was coated with a layer of slippery ice. Catching himself he, for the first time since he had been summoned into this age, drew upon the full power of his most rarely used Noble Phantasm.

Sha Naqba Imuru was a continuously active Noble Phantasm that allowed Gilgamesh to see the vast possibilities of every move made by both him and his opponent. An instant after activation a dozen Noble Phantasm's with the power to restrain emitted from his gate using his own broken shields as cover he hid their path until the very moment they impacted the body of the True Ancestor causing her to briefly lock-up. At that instant two more swords that specialized in killing nature spirits launched from the gate intent on impaling the True Ancestor.

They wouldn't make it through Gilgamesh knew as he pivoted to the side to dodge the extremely well timed sneak attack. Even so the armour over his right arm fell to pieces, killed by the knife of another worthy opponent. A sickle appeared in his hand and he swung it with the intent to bisect the servant but was unsurprised to see the assassin retreat backwards, contorting himself to dodge the blast of wind that would have cleaved him in two. Hopping backwards he managed to avoid the icy dragon that now pursued him. A stone tablet appeared in his hand and with a gesture hundreds of runes appeared over the dragon causing it to melt in place, the intricate magecraft that went into it utterly destroyed.

He frowned as he felt the knight advance on him again. While Gilgamesh was aware that he could be described as a one-man army he was also well aware that all four of his opponents could be called the same. Thinking through thousands of possibilities he forced himself to go on the attack whirling around to face the glowing knight. Countless spears of water impacted his armour causing dents to arise but his sole exposed arm and head were again protected by bolts of lightning emitted from the floating orbs. He was aware of an attack by the True Ancestor and he could physically feel the entire world warping to kill him but he shrugged it off by summoning an artefact that negated the powers of Gaia from his vault causing the weakened attack to only scuff his armour.

A golden glowing sword of light emerged from his vault into his hand and immediately unleashed Merodach at the body of the knight. The beam of light was met with an identical one that fought against the divine light with the fury of the sun overpowering the legendary treasure. However Gilgamesh wasn't done just yet. The curtain of night escaped from his vault and blotted out the sun far above in the sky and he noticed an immediate drop in the power of the knight. The advantage shifted and Merodach shattered the weakened beam bearing down on the knight that was so audacious as to strike the king.

The beam of killing light bore down on the knight and it looked he would be the first one to die until suddenly out of thin air Shirou Inke stepped. Gilgamesh's Sha Naqba Imuru went blank for a moment trying to figure out how he could possibly manage to have a hope of stopping the Original Sin. He didn't have to wait long as the magician extended his hand towards the beam, there was no vulgar flare of prana or vague ominous feeling that heralded the next move of the god in human form. He made a move as if to catch the beam and the light of Merodach froze.

To the heightened perception of the king it happened relatively slow despite taking place in less than a second. From the place where his hand touched the golden wave ice flowed from the light itself and the light dimmed as it was buried underneath the frigid substance.

Gilgamesh blinked, displaying an uncommonly human move at the sheer absurdity at the sight before him and that was when it all went wrong for him. In his instant of distraction he felt his golden armour die around him and when he whirled around to kill that annoying assassin once and for all he came face to face with Arcueid Brunestud and became intimately familiar with her fist. Launched out of the crumbling remains of his armour with black spots appearing before his eyes he gave himself completely over to clairvoyance and he felt numerous blows be redirected or avoided as he unconsciously moved to avoid them. Snapping his eyes open he summoned shields to avoid thousands of icy arms that struck from every direction. Ducking to the side and narrowly avoiding slipping into the pool and certain death he summoned a spiral sword into his hand and thrust forward piercing into the body of the True Ancestor. His triumph was short lived as she shrugged off the damage and he felt the force of the world hit him. His skin was scoured by the wind and his bones were being crushed by waves of gravity and he found himself abusing his clairvoyance to select the few treasures in his vault that could defend himself from such an assault. A wave of water sent him spiralling off his feet and he abused a specific Noble Phantasm that allowed him to levitate above the churning water.

He quickly took in the position of the four attackers, the magus girl being only able to harm him if he actually lets his guard down and she got very lucky as a result. The knight was weaker than before and he had already posed the least threat among the four. The assassin that had broken his armour was lurking around the edges of the room abusing his relatively low threat ranking. The last True Ancestor was continuously charging him giving him very little time to recover and he knew very few ways of getting rid of her permanently. The undercover Lord of the Abzu was by far the trickiest and was constantly switching methods and angles of attack.

He would have to incapacitate him first if he wanted a chance to win and he had just the tool. A sudden awareness came to Gilgamesh and he whirled on his heel. A massive fist of ice hammered into the hastily summoned shield of the demigod and he found himself falling but not before he wrapped a length of chain around the slippery magician. The chains of heaven clung tightly to the avatar and he could tell from his opponents face that he immediately realized the consequences of his position. Swinging around as he came down he launched him at full speed at the side of the room causing the sound barrier as well as multiple concrete walls to be shattered by the sheer force.

Switching his perspective to the True Ancestor he acknowledged her strength and in an instant an ornate golden key appeared in his hand. Swiftly sticking it in the air next to him he swiftly pulled out his trump card straight out of the vault. EA had already begun to spin eagerly, more eagerly than he had ever seen it spin before; it appeared the weapon harboured great feelings against its father. As soon as Arcueid Brunestud saw the weapon she dashed backwards with enough range that she could easily dodge it. Inspecting the myriad of possibilities Gilgamesh came across one that would work but ultimately leave a bad taste in his mouth. Biting back his pride he turned and aimed at the young magus that had accompanied them but had yet to do anything useful.

A slight widening of her eyes told him that the True Ancestor understood the implications. Moving faster than he had seen her move yet, she dashed in the path of EA and bravely faced down the weapon that created the world. A knife strike came from his blind spot and in the very next instant the assassin was down punctured by a single unbelievably fast sword through his chest.

Without even pausing in his original attack he summoned the Shield of the Gods, one of his strongest defensive Noble Phantasm's which easily blocked the diminished blast of energy from the knight and with a swing of his hand he fired the entire shield at his opponent driving him through all the walls and leaving him buried under rubble. "Enuma Elish," Gilgamesh said speaking his first words of the battle as EA hit its critical speed and with a sound like the roar of the gods the seams of the planet started to come apart culminating in space-time itself ripping into pieces in a maelstrom of violent scarlet energy.

The White Princess stretched her arm out and thick castle walls started to form out of nothingness. The beam of red hued energy hit the fortifications and burrowed through three pairs of the walls and a pair of thick doors s the Golden King watched as an entire castle sprung into existence in front of his very eyes only to be immediately obliterated by the world-destroying red beam. Undiminished the beam bore down on the pair of females and the Golden King watched as the world warped around the hand of the last True Ancestor as she struck the beam.

The world shook as an unstoppable force met an immovable object and then for an instant the immovable object moved. Sliding back the True Ancestor brought the other hand up to push back against the all-consuming energy of EA and for the first time in over five thousand years Gilgamesh was forced to mirror his opponent and bring his other hand to the handle of EA, leaving the key to his gate to hang in mid-air, and forced immense amounts of prana into the weapon. He watched in incredulity as the beam grew in intensity and power achieving such destructive potential that it would long ago have rendered the city of Fuyuki into ashes if the force wasn't entirely concentrated on the impossibly powerful Elemental in front of him. Even as her hands were being consumed by the light, he watched in admiration as the world sewed itself back together at her very presence. At that moment she transcended the simple status as a phantasmal being and acted as a needle that skewered down the current reality of the world.

With utmost reluctance he ceased pumping prana into EA and watched as the last vestiges dissipated against the guard of the White Princess. While he would dearly love to see how far he could push this monster in human form he was well aware of how much energy he had already burned through and he had no desire to use it all and anti-climatically fade away. He immediately became aware of the True Ancestor charging him and a quick look was all that it took to confirm the situation. While she had managed to successfully repel his attack she had done it at the cost of her sanity. Her eyes glowed red and her hands morphed into claws as she charged at Gilgamesh in a manner akin to a beast.

Unfortunately for her Gilgamesh saw it all coming letting EA hang in the air by his side he sidestepped the telegraphed blow and stabbed the key to his vault into the body of his worthy opponent. The White Princess had no chance to defend herself as weapons sprouted from inside her body tearing her muscles and nerves to shreds and piercing every organ including her heart and brain. Gilgamesh watched with no small amount of satisfaction and tiredness as the momentary corpse collapsed down to the floor. That fight had pushed him way to hard. Taking shallow breaths he focused on the mage who was staring at him holding her pathetic jewels as if they could actually harm him. He summoned a sword above his head with the power to cut through magecraft and took aim.

Suddenly Gilgamesh felt hot and sharp pain around his throat and all his oxygen was cut off, he tried to move backwards but he was immediately pressed from behind by a body. His thoughts went a mile a minute and his Sha Naqba Imuru started immediately analysing his current situation. Bringing his hands to his throat in an attempt to get some air into his lungs he found an immensely familiar golden chain that defied his every attempt to escape. Gilgamesh managed to crane his head slightly and he saw the very familiar visage of the fourth magician. His brain pieced it together but his mind refused to believe it. Somehow his opponent had supressed his divinity snapped Enkidu and then proceeded to throttle him with his own chains of heaven.

Stunned for a moment by the audaciousness of the very manoeuvre Gilgamesh had no time to recover as in the very next instant his body was struck by a hail of magic. The strikes came thick and fast and he could feel his body start to disintegrate under the hail of magic. Cursing his weak magic resistance and his incarnated body that unlike that of a normal servant proved vulnerable to oxygen depletion he primed a hail of swords and fired them towards the magus.

Unfortunately none of them reached as they were all intercepted by jets of water that surpassed them in speed and struck them down. The magus flinched but she drew out another handful of gems. Gilgamesh forced himself to stay awake despite his lack of oxygen. He readied his shields to block the jewels from the magus girl and primed his swords to try and strike down Enki but he was stopped by a voice that whispered in his ear.

"Rest Gilgamesh," the voice said as confident and self-assured as the day he appeared in his throne room with a scheme to kill the bull. "Your time has long passed King of Heroes. Can you not see your friend waiting for you to join him?"

"Yes," Gilgamesh said and for the first time in a long time his mind felt suddenly clear of the corruption. "Yes I can," he said as the world around him went black and his Sha Naqba Imuru turned away from the battle and the planet and fixated on a place far away and yet so close where a green haired companion waited for him. "Yes I can," he said. His shields and weapons, bar one, faded away into the Gate of Babylon. "Thank…" was all that he got out before his body was disintegrated under the pressure of Rin Tohsaka's jewel empowered attack.

xxx

Shirou sighed as he stared at his hands. The piece of chain had disintegrated into prana when the King of Heroes had departed from the world. Melancholy overtook him as he stared at the ruins of the swimming pool that he had spent so many hours both alone and with Gilgamesh. Looking over he noticed Rin staring at the place where Gilgamesh once stood as if she was expecting him to come back. She was understandably shell-shocked by the fight. While Rin Tohsaka was an unquestionably brilliant magus she was unused to high speed combat and so she had wisely not attacked until he had finally managed to hold Gilgamesh still.

Scanning the ground he noticed that Arcueid was swiftly recovering and had slipped a bit too far into her bloodlust creating a potentially dangerous situation. He walked up to her and inflicted the concept of [sleep] on her. While normally her absurd magic resistance would allow her to overcome the simple piece of magic, she instinctively trusted Shirou and thus allowed herself to doze off.

Turning his eyes to the two servants he was gratified to see that the two of them appeared to be alive. Shiki had already removed the sword from his chest and was eying both Shirou and Arcueid.

"Battle continuation," he said in response to Shirou's unasked question.

The magician just nodded at that response and turned his head to where Gawain had managed to dig himself out of the rubble now that Gilgamesh's shield disappeared. He scanned the room and then, satisfied that the Golden King was no more went to join his master.

"That went well," Shirou said to himself stretching out his sore muscles. "All of us got out alive and with no serious injuries. Good job Rin," he said giving the magus thumbs up.

The young magus dazedly returned the gesture before shaking herself out of her stupor. "But you didn't manage to get your tool," she said. "We did all of that for nothing."

"Wrong," Shirou said bending down and shaking Arcueid awake now that she had sufficiently calmed down. "Gilgamesh would have to be taken care of sometime during the war regardless and I did manage to get my tool," Shirou said gesturing to where the cylindrical blade remained despite its owner's disappearance.

"That thing is what you were looking for?" Rin asked suddenly going a few shades paler. "Did you see what that thing did?"

"It took off my hands Shirou," a waking Arcueid said, holding up the stumps. "They're not regrowing," she continued sounding a bit miffed.

"Yeah, you're going to have to recreate them," Shirou said. "Your normal kind of healing will not work against this thing."

Arcueid pouted but nodded her head and returned her arms to her side. "This means you're going to have to make me new gloves," she said to Shirou.

"I already said I would," Shirou sighed. "I'll get you a new pair as soon as I get home. Come on," he said walking up to the cylindrical sword that was stuck into the ground and seized the handle.

There was a horrible screeching sound and the magician recoiled. Holding his arm up and inspecting it he was stunned to see the mangled pieces of what was his hand until a few moments ago.

"That is not good," he said staring blankly at the piece of tattered meat.

 **Author Note: Sorry for taking so long upon reading a few DXD fics I was filled with righteous rage and thus wrote out half of a one-shot if anybody is interested. I am genuinely curious if anybody has ever written a story where Rin was the person who ultimately killed Gilgamesh.**

 **regfurby: There was a story that had just completed called Chaos theory. It is one of the few stories that actually goes into some detail about the aftermath of the war. I can confirm that if Shirou were to go back after the Grail war he would see a few empty seats.**

 **SentinalSlice: Hope it lived up to your expectations. Ultimately Shirou won because Gilgamesh wasn't able to calculate the power of his Magic i.e. freezing Merodach and breaking Enkidu and it threw off his clairvoyance.**

 **vanny98: Those chapter titles were going to be the death of me. No more I declare. Well maybe one.**

 **Please Read and Review. Until next time.**


	52. Chapter 52

It was a dishevelled and injured group that entered Shirou's living room. Of the five that had set out to battle only Rin had remained unharmed. Shirou sat down at the head of the table placing his chin upon his still metallic right hand and watched as the rest of them followed him in sitting down wearily at the table.

Arcueid sat down next to him and slung one of her handless arms over his shoulder. EA was a tool that disrupted the natural flow of the world and thus beings that relied on the world's power to heal themselves such as True Ancestors and Dead Apostles would find themselves out of luck. Arcueid however was a certified monster who could recreate her body from nothingness and therefore it was only time that stood in the way of her becoming in one piece again.

The two servants looked worse for wear as well. Gawain's armour had a massive dent in the middle to the extent that Shirou believed if he wasn't a servant he would have also suffered from suffocation.

Shiki despite being run through his chest by the sword was relatively okay with no obvious injuries to show for the excursion. By his side he held the Sword of Rupture that remained content to sleep within his grasp. Shirou's injury at the hands of EA had caused a minor commotion among the remainder of the group with many people clamouring to not be the one to carry it. Eventually Arcueid had gotten tired of the other three playing a game of not it and proceeded to pick it up in her mouth. Shirou had never been more tempted to shoot the reckless ancestor but Arcueid's foolhardy actions confirmed his hypothesis that the device held a deep hatred for him and him alone. In the end Shiki was forced to take it home due to Gawain being too consipicous, Rin being too fragile, Arcueid being too handless and it really not liking Shirou.

"Can we use it to defeat Primate Murder?" Arcueid asked with a trace of hope in her voice. That bit of hope unfortunately just made Shirou's next words much harsher.

"No," he said reluctantly but with no trace of doubt. "While it certainly has the power to do so, nobody here has the qualifications necessary to use it, namely being Gilgamesh. I could probably get around that restriction," he lied about the reason. "But it apparently it does not like me which impedes me from working on it."

"Is it any wonder it wouldn't like you," the voice of his servant announced her presence as she boldly strode into the room followed closely behind Satsuki who walked behind her.

"What do you mean?" Rin asked sharply pondering the implications that Shirou's servant knew more about the weapon than he himself did.

"EA is not a Noble Phantasm," Ishtar stated denying the possibility outright. "No," she continued striding towards the sword and running her wide eyes over its frame. "This, this is an authority."

The room went quiet at that as the grand sounding pronouncement failed to make sense to the vast majority of the room.

"Ishtar enough," Shirou said his voice tired.

"Inke," Ishtar said putting entire books worth of unsaid words in his name. "I had a talk with Nine while you were away with your Gilgamesh business. He informed me about the demise of Sherlock Holmes as well as the fact that the seventh master is possibly not human."

"Okay," Shirou said nodding his head. "And this changes things how?"

"It changes thinks because I've only ever seen Rose-coloured eyes in one place before," his servant said placing emphasis on her words.

"You know who it is," Shirou exclaimed with a voice full of intrigue. "And the colour is fuchsia."

"Len showed me," Ishtar said taking a deep breath and choosing not to debate the precise shade. "Inke the colour of her eyes; I've only ever seen that colour on the Mother of Dragons."

A crash and half the table physically recoiled as Shirou's fist was driven through the wooden surface. He opened his mouth to reply immediately and then closed it in deep thought. Then he made as if to speak again before returning to his silence. It was unlike Shirou to lose control over his actions or act in haste and the rest of the table watched in dumbstruck silence at his uncharacteristic behaviour.

"It is possible," he admitted with extreme reluctance. "It would require a very specific set of irreplicable circumstances but all gods damn it its possible."

"What are you talking about?" Satsuki interrupted as she took a seat at the now shattered table. "I've stood next to a stressed out Rider for the past half an hour and I'd really like to know why."

Shirou opened his mouth to speak and then hesitated. He needed to tell them, he knew this. However the revelation would change how they saw him and Shirou honestly didn't want that. He was happy with the relationships he had and yet there was only one choice, one way to proceed.

"The seventh master is somehow being possessed by Tiamat," he said startling the collective room and earning an appreciative look from his servant. "She was an immensely powerful primordial Mesopotamian deity and one of the two oldest of the gods. She is utterly hostile to all the creatures of the earth and will stop at nothing to see their destruction."

"How do you know this," Satsuki interrupted eying up Shirou as he spoke. While the majority of them seemed stunned by his statement she seemed to accept it easily enough which Shirou took as a sign of her new maturity and capability.

"I know because over six thousand years ago I killed her husband," Shirou said dramatically.

Shirou waited for stunned responses but apparently the collective group had enough of shocking revelations for the night. Shirou strode up to the apparatus that he had received upon slaying Gilgamesh and raised his hand stopping just short of touching it. "This used to be part of me before I separated it and turned it into a weapon that I offered to Gilgamesh." He whipped his head around eying up the table. "Allow me to reintroduce myself correctly this time. I am Shirou Inke formerly known as Enki the lord of the Abzu, god of water, magic and knowledge, although I sometimes go by Ea."

The bombshell dropped at the table causing a veritable range of reactions. Satsuki's eyes widened and she focused her full attention on Shirou inspecting every inch of his body as if she'd never seen him before. Ishtar merely nodded in approval and took a seat. Arcueid merely tilted her head and regarded her friend. Shiki whipped his head towards the revealed god, and drew down half of his blindfold so as to eye him up before relaxing. Gawain tensed and shifted his hand incrementally towards his sword before dropping it and visibly relaxing. The loudest reaction came from Rin who almost fell off her chair.

"That's not possible," she exclaimed pointing at him.

"Why?" Shirou or Enki or Ea said very calmly cutting off her sentence. "Tell me why it isn't possible."

"Um," Rin said feeling very self-conscious as she felt the eyes of the room on her. "Because the gods have not existed for thousands of years," she said defensively. "If they were still around we would have heard of them."

"Good observation Rin," came the immediate reply from the magician. "Gods cannot exist as the world doesn't support them and human science and observation actively disproves them," he explained. "The birth of Alaya caused all of the gods and many of the phantasmal beasts to be trapped on the reverse side of the world. But there is a way to get past that restriction. A caveat if you will." Shirou raised a finger for emphasis. "If a god or creature is born human, they will be able to exist in that state until the destruction of their body, but they are also heavily restricted by that body and by the state of the world. What I am saying is that in order for Tiamat to fully manifest she would have to recreate the age of the gods. If that happens humanity loses."

Shirou remained very silent for a few moments to allow the group to gather their thoughts. "And the worst thing is that it isn't even the most immediate problem. I finally worked out how the Aylesbury Valesti works and it's practically another end of the world scenario."

"Just stop pausing for dramatic effect and tell me what it does," Satsuki said impatiently.

"It will create at least one new Type-Moon," Shirou said. "When Crimson Moon created the True Ancestors the process was meant to create Lunarians, his original species. But it was flawed and instead created True Ancestors which were for the most part weaker than Lunarians with a few noticeable exceptions," Shirou said gesturing to Arcueid. "The same thing happened when the True Ancestors created the Dead Apostles, which were weaker and flawed copies. The same thing happens today when a dead apostle creates a member of the dead. What the ritual should in theory do is to sublimate the original ancestor blood in the veins of all the members of Crimson moon's extended family leading to a vast upgrade in their strength and as a likely consequence increase the subsequent rate of spread."

"So it will cause a Zombie apocalypse," Shirou's favourite True Ancestor said innocently.

"No… yes," Shirou admitted unenthusiastically. "Any questions?"

"I have one Shirou," Arc said again. "Does this mean you were actually the one robbing the cradle?"

A loud bang was the reply and Arcueid's head jerked back slightly. She raised a hand to her head and picked up a flattened bullet that had just been fired out of the pistol aimed at her.

"You've used up your strikes Arcueid," Shirou said causing the White Princess to pout half-heartedly. "Any questions for intelligent people," Shirou amended regarding the other table.

"Shouldn't the counterforce step in?" Satsuki said as she ruminated on her words. "There are two possibly apocalyptic threats. Shouldn't Alaya do its job and help to eliminate the opposition?"

Shirou winced at that. "Not always," he said bitterly. "Sometimes a series of events will cause a dimension to branch to far from the focal more homogenous timelines. These alternate worlds are called dead ends and will almost unanimously result in the Earth being doomed." Shirou continued speaking even as more shocked silence descended upon the room. "In this case events will conspire to result in the destruction of the alternate world so more power can be saved for worlds closer to the ideal reality."

"What does that mean," Rin asked with audible tiredness.

"Basically it means we're playing on hard mode with no respawns," Shirou said summing it up perfectly to three of the members of the table and confusing the rest. "No help and the odds are stacked against us. Tiamat and her host need the full ritual to be completed whereas the vampires only need a majority of servants dead and grails smashed."

"I have a question," Ishtar said raising one elegant hand above her head. "How did you actually manage to incarnate? I'm still stumped at that part."

"Reborn as a human and met the other version of myself in Akasha," Shirou said boiling down an immensely complex explanation. "I started naming myself Inke automatically shifting myself more towards the concept of the original me that I met in Akasha and eventually I regained my memories from the dream cycle."

"So you saw the end," Ishtar said her voice unusually demure.

"Yeah," Shirou said with his mouth dry. He coughed into his hand distracting himself from the painful memories. Standing up from his chair he surveyed the room containing some of the most powerful beings in the world and Rin. "Tonight we're going to have to survive an onslaught of the strongest beings in the world and protect the three remaining lesser grails. If we lose the ritual will be able to be performed and the entire world could be at risk of… zombies," Shirou said with audible distaste on the last word. "Relax or warm-up, mentally prepare yourself or just tell your family that you love them," Shirou said as he repaired the table with a snap of his fingers. "Come the night you must be ready to kill and kill and kill until there is nobody alive who can possibly enact the ritual. No more holding back. Good luck."

At this Shirou teleported to his room to allow them to digest the information that he had suddenly dropped on them. Sitting idly in his room he waited for an unavoidable conversation. He tapped his knees with his hands as he contemplated the many ways that the conversation could turn out. Unfortunately when dealing with matters such as these his even his wisdom fell short. He examined his room from top to bottom looking at the many mystic codes that decorated his walls silently wondering if he should bring any of them tonight. No was the answer he swiftly arrived at. It was an unfortunate side-effect that most of the effects that his mystic codes produced he could replicate with virtually no drawbacks. The only two mystic codes that he used consistently were his gun, his boots and his sword because it usually took a not inconsiderable amount of time to replicate the effects in battle. In fact he still had to recreate the mystic codes that Arcueid used as her battle armour. Not that Shirou ever minded fixing Arcueid's battle armour. The magician could remember multiple times that the True Ancestor had walked into his room, stripped herself nude and presented him with her broken mystic code. Any irritation that he could have possibly felt at the situation was always washed away by Arcueid's eagerly waiting stark-naked form and she was always willing to show her appreciation once he had finished with the fix…

"Hey," the voice of Ishtar announced her presence behind him.

"Shit," Shirou said as he was unwittingly jolted from the happy fantasies he had been trying to bury himself in to avoid this very conversation. "Hey Ishtar," he said cursing his current lack of omniscience. Turning around he saw the form of his servant and friend.

The two of them stared awkwardly at each other for a few moments trying their best to figure out how to address the monumental issue between them.

"I'm sorry," they both blurted out simultaneously and like a mirror both stepped back in shock.

They both stood speechless for a moment before Ishtar took the initiative. "I was only concerned about myself. I didn't see how many of my actions were hurting you. You gave me so many chances and I threw them in your face. Please forgive me," she said a hint of wetness in her eyes.

"I was too weak," Shirou said his voice barely above a whisper. "I put all your failings on you when I deserved far more blame. I raised you and yet I stood to the side and let you fail. All my wisdom and I couldn't even see a way to save you."

Ishtar shook her head. "I was so blinded by my pride that I nearly destroyed multiple times. I disregarded all your teachings. They were wasted on someone like me and in the end I threw away what was most important to me. I deserved it."

"No," Shirou rejected her words. "I was blinded by my own hubris. I merely assumed that you would follow my teachings because I'm meant to be wise and when you weren't perfect, when you failed, I discarded you," Shirou said with a voice full of self-hatred.

Suddenly he felt arms encircle him and he in turn grasped onto his once protégé, now servant. The two of them didn't speak and clung to each other in comfort. It was a long while before they both drew back. Ishtar wiped her eyes and gave an unsteady smile.

"We're good now," she said with naked hope in her voice.

"Yeah, we're good," Shirou said. Tears flowed freely from his eyes but there was a beautiful smile upon his face. "Ishtar whatever may come in future; know that it's truly good to see you again."

"Of course it's good to see me," Ishtar said coyly. "Do you know of any man who wouldn't want to gaze upon my beauty?"

"I think I just killed one," Shirou replied with the smile still on his lips.

"Yeah," Ishtar said her smile fading a bit. "Do you know that there was a weird solar eclipse of Fuyuki for about three minutes during the day? Experts from around the world are trying to come up with scientific reasons for this unexplained phenomena. Do you have any idea what it may be?"

"That's not good," Shirou said thoughtfully. "If this Grail War gets any worse the church will not have a hope in hell of covering it up. And yet the unprecedented reveal of magic which would shift the world's viewpoint, uprooting beliefs and causing countless changes to society does not even reach the fifth worst outcome of this whole mess. Man if I could go back in time I'd give the people who created that fucking cup a punch."

Shirou stopped for a moment as a thought unexpectedly struck him. "I need to talk to somebody," he said excusing himself and moving towards the door. "It's not really important for the war but I feel it needs to be done."

"Alright," Ishtar said. "Good luck with whatever you're doing. I'm going to go scouting and I'm going to be taking Nine with me."

"Inanna," Shirou said turning around just before he walked out of the door. "Let's team up tonight.

"I'd like that Enki," she said smiling in return before becoming intangible and falling through the floor.

Shirou smiled and left the room with an extra spring in his step. He felt a lot lighter and while there was still guilt, the fact that she didn't hate him created a warm feeling within his chest. Walking down the hallway that lead to one of the many spare rooms that dotted his house he knocked politely on the door twice before opening the door.

Rin was in the room sitting on the bed and she gave him an annoyed look when he entered. "I really wish you wouldn't do that," she growled. "I could have been changing."

"At this time of day, Rin?" Shirou asked amused. "I certainly wouldn't object to the sight."

"Are you feeling quite alright," Rin asked with a raised eyebrow. "You seem unusually perverted."

"Comes with me suddenly remembering that I am a multi-millennial god of sex," Shirou said grimacing slightly.

"You uhh, didn't mention that domain when you were introducing yourself," Rin said blushing slightly.

"I didn't want to offend any virgin ears," Shirou said. "Their maiden hearts might not be hardy enough."

"There is nothing wrong with being a virgin," Rin shouted and then cut herself off looking visibly horrified.

"Oh are you a virgin Rin," Shirou said looking very interested in the conversation now. "I was actually talking about Satsuki. So you've never had the joys of experiencing sex before." A sly smile showed himself upon his face. "Would you like me to rectify that situation?"

Five minutes passed until Shirou had finished deflecting all her Gandr shots. Leaning against the wall Shirou silently admired her prowess with magecraft. There existed top-tier magi that Shirou had run across, and occasionally killed, that couldn't even manage half of her output. He nodded his head as he evaluated her. Rin Tohsaka was a truly magnificent glass cannon and under most non-world ending circumstances he would devote a significant amount of effort to get into her pants.

"Do you know that I can actually believe you were a god," Rin said when she was calm again. "There's always been something different about you, something larger than life. Besides this way I can say that the only person who does better than me in school is a literal god of wisdom."

"What does wisdom have to do with the Japanese education system Rin?" Shirou asked eliciting a small chuckle from the magus. "How are you holding up?" Shirou asked.

"I'm fine, I think," Rin said. "It just doesn't feel real. If we fail the world will be destroyed. I just can't wrap my head around it."

"That's natural," Shirou said nodding. "The human brain isn't equipped to deal with stakes of that immensity. I bet you barely know fifty people and less than ten with any particular intimacy. You don't see the faceless masses and thus you cannot comprehend what they stand to lose."

"That makes me sound like a terrible person," Rin said frowning in contemplation.

"I can confidently say that I only know of a few magi more morally upright than you Rin," Shirou said with complete honesty. "Trust me as a former god of wisdom to say that for all your many flaws you are in no way a bad person."

"Thanks for the backhanded compliment," Rin said but with no heat behind her words.

Shirou merely smiled and threw something at Rin.

"What is this?" Rin asked catching the object.

"It's a cellphone Rin," Shirou said shaking his head. "More specifically it is my cellphone. Are you really so technologically inept that you cannot even recognize it."

"I know what it is," Rin defended herself hotly. "I don't know why you're throwing it at me."

"When the Grail War started I asked both my sister and yours to leave the city," Shirou replied calmly ignoring the slight gasp that came from Rin. "This was due to my suspicion that the war could have adverse effects on them due to the fact that both of them had at one time been prepared as lesser grails…"

"What?" Rin interrupted grabbing Shirou's shoulders. "Why? What happened?"

"Calm down," Shirou said and Rin felt her body immediately lock up. Gawain materialised behind him with his sword along the magicians' throat.

"Release her," he commanded and was subsequently ignored by Shirou who focused on his master.

"Let it be Sakura's story to tell if she ever feels comfortable," Shirou said sternly and Rin felt herself flop down onto the bed. "Her number is on the phone," he said. "I would advise you call her."

"Is now really the right time," Rin said. "We are fighting a war. She might not even be happy to see me. We haven't spoken in years," the young magus said letting some of her insecurities slip.

"I thought much the same," Shirou said and look where it got me.

Rin scowled as she thought about Shirou's situation. "Sakura will be fine," she protested.

"Will you be?" Shirou asked flatly. "Trust me Rin, dying with regrets is second in pain only to living with regrets." He moved the knight's sword away from his throat with the tip of his finger and stood up from the bed. "Keep the phone," Shirou commanded. "I have a spare and it will help you keep in contact with me tonight. You know what the correct choice is Rin."

Those were his last words as he teleported out of the room and into another. Unlike Rin's room that had the magus to lend a bit of colour and motion to this room this one was quiet and still. In the middle of the room lay Shirou's sister upon the solitary bed. She looked peaceful and Shirou watched as she took slow breaths in and out for a minute. He opened his mouth to speak. To try and dredge up some appropriate piece of encouragement that he knew couldn't reach her. In the end he merely took a seat on the floor of the room watching her sleeping form.

"I wish things could have been different," Shirou said vocalising his regret. "But then if they were would I have ever met Kiritsugu, Sumire, Arcueid, Satsuki, Illya, Sakura, Nine…" his voice trailed off as he contemplated the way his life went. If he was not constrained by a mortal brain he could have possibly used some form of magic that scoured parallel worlds to show him the result but unfortunately it was beyond all but one at this time. In the end he should count himself fortunate that he even managed to get a second life. Many thoughts of death and mortality flew through his mind buoyed on by the death toll of the past few days as well as his sister's fragile form.

He sat there watching Aoko in silent contemplation for hours until Arcueid dragged him away to fix her armour.

 **Author Note: This chapter took me a long time to write due to work and TI8 (the one sporting event I actually do watch) but I'm honestly not certain if I gave the appropriate impact to both the characters and the situation.**

 **Archleone: I've kinda missed your commentary. I've always thought that the support should get the kill. They kinda do need the experience the most. Is my analogy breaking down? Anyway none of them are going to walk around with a shirt saying 'I've killed the King of Heroes' so there was really no benefit. Rin did the least in the fight and Shirou probably did the most. Ultimately despite the backup it came down to Shirou v Gilgamesh. Everything else was the magician stacking the deck.**

 **DPSS Iinelomviing YuukiAsuna-Chan Honestly the sword just really despises him. Archer and Shirou get on infinitely better than EA and Enki.**

 **snowyassass1n You're looking for Campione. Fate authorities don't work that way. Thank the gods, or the world would be dead.**

 **Please Read and Review.**


	53. Chapter 53

Shirou overlooked the city of Fuyuki from his position atop one of the many skyscrapers that dotted the landscape. While the tower provided good vision of the city he was not using it as a vantage point unlike his companion. To the left sat his servant and friend Ishtar. Despite his resurgent memories it felt weird calling her Inanna again. Inanna was the name of the girl that had he had entertained when he was young with so much potential; the girl who he had mentored and taught and helped her wherever he could. Ishtar was the name of the woman who had grown and seized her domains of fertility and war, a proud and yet playful being who had easily been one of the strongest gods in all of Babylonia at the time of her death.

She eyed the city with sharp eyesight that would have shamed many heroes of the Archer class. Her hand lay upon her bow and Shirou knew that she waited eagerly for the opportunity to snipe any enemies that dared show their faces. However her prodigious eyes paled in comparison to the method that Shirou himself used. Using one of his oldest techniques (he refused to call it [Poseidon's eye] anymore after actually remembering the prick) he ran infinitesimal amounts of prana through the moisture in the air picking up on all his targets.

What he saw was alarming; in a few seconds of using the technique he had identified the location of every single ally and enemy on the field. Of all of those only Sumire, Arcueid, Narbareck and Primate Murder managed to detect his magic and he managed to discern the identity of the remaining servants and master pairs. That was not the thing that disturbed him however.

The amount of dead in the streets and buildings was enormous. Legions of them sat dormant or patrolled the streets only to be cut down by church forces or increase their numbers. Taking into the account the rather high chance that a person killed would die without becoming a dead, a grim picture for Fuyuki was formed.

"Over one percent," Shirou thought with a muted twinge of horror. "While the number may not sound large when it was phrased in that manner in a city the size of Fuyuki that figure amounted to over fifteen thousand lives lost already. Shirou got the sick feeling that the numbers in his classrooms would be reduced after the war and he wondered how many of the familiar faces that he had seen every day were crawling the streets or lying in their final sleep.

Shirou turned his thoughts away from that appalling revelation and forcibly converted his disgust and fear into pure determination as he mentally tallied the strengths of each group. The fact that the Dead Apostle Ancestors had such a short period of time in which to enact the ritual allowed his team to control the location for the confrontations. To that end he had revealed the location of two of the remaining grails that the Ancestors would have already likely been aware of due to whichever method they used to track down the other three. The third one was far better protected than the other five and would almost certainly be the last one to be attacked.

The two teams consisted of Arcueid and Shiki on one team and Rin, Gawain, Bazett and Nine on the other. Despite the second team containing double the amount of members Shirou still believed that the first team was stronger overall. Satsuki had returned to the park to finally settle the score with her master and as both Satsuki and Sumire usually followed Shirou's policy of not letting an opponent escape three times the pseudo-god was reasonably certain this would be their final showdown.

A bland and decidedly default ringtone broke the silence of the night and Shirou checked the caller ID before he put his cell to his ear. "Hello Rin," he said.

"I'm afraid it's not the young miss," the voice of Nine announced the owner of the phone. "Unfortunately she managed to change the operating language to French and thus I had to take over the operation of the phone."

"Comment est ton Français," Shirou inquired with somewhat rusty French.

"I cannot speak a word," Nine admitted. "We've run into a few problems but the beast of Gaia has not arrived yet."

The sounds of fighting echoed from the speaker startling Shirou. "Wait a minute are you actually fighting while talking on the phone. That's even worse than driving Nine," Shirou said seriously. "Put the phone down and kill that bastard."

"At once Master," Nine said and Shirou heard the distinctive bleeping noise of a disconnection.

Shirou shook his head and turned to his servant who was watching him with a twinge of amusement in her eyes. "I love that guy but sometimes he's a bit too much," Shirou said with barely concealed hilarity. "They're fighting Heracles," he said seriously with only a moment's concentration. "As well as Ozymandias, they're outmatched."

"I can go assist them and you can keep an eye out for the larger group," Ishtar immediately volunteered. "We need at least one of us to deal with Achilles."

"No," Shirou rejected immediately. "I'm keeping an eye on their progress. We have time to thin out the herd. He instantly grabbed the arm of the Mesopotamian goddess and teleported into the grail chamber. Instantly upon entering the room he was forced to clap his hands together summoning a sphere of ice around him. The combined output of the attacks that impacted the sphere almost shattered it; but with a slight gesture and a small portion of prana the surrounding ice molecules reconfigured themselves into a form not found in earth and the temperature of the ice particles decreased even further until an impossible barrier was formed around the two. However Shirou didn't allow the attacks to continue. Scanning the room at a much closer range he realised that there were instead five opponents in a confrontation with their four allies.

Channelling more prana he fragmented the ice sphere into numerous pieces and then fired them at all the enemies while redirecting the last of the incoming attacks with streams of water. A quick gesture to his servant and Ishtar moved over to secure his allies position while hefaced off against his adversaries. Scanning the room he noted that all the blocks of ice were either dodged, redirected or just ignored he and quickly analysed the foes. "Heracles, Ozymandias, Trhvmn, Gransurg and Leonardo da Vinci," Shirou said put loud; his eyes widening at the last name as he wondered as to when the painter/inventor had taken up crossdressing.

"Shirou Inke," Trhvmn Ortenrosse said to the magician and Shirou wondered idly how he knew his name. "Sumire told us about you," the seventeenth Dead Apostle Ancestor said answering his unspoken question. "It was a rather spectacular surprise attack you performed on me the last time I think it is far past time that I repaid you it."

"I also wish to face down the man that managed to destroy my blessing from the gods," Heracles replied. "I was blinded by my wrath last time and I didn't get to properly respond.

"He killed my favourite cat," Ozymandias said shrugging.

"Have I affronted either of you," Shirou said turning towards the duo of Leonardo and Blackmore.

Gransurg Blackmore didn't respond and Leonardo chuckled and shook her head. "No you haven't offended me," the artist said with a melodic voice. "Also we're not really with them. We just have the location to the grails and they followed us."

"All the grails?" Shirou asked but the Caster servant merely smiled and chose not to reply. Shirou shook his head silently prioritising the death of the Black Wing lord and his servant. "The completion of the so-called Aylesbury ritual," he said after a moment. "Is there any way that I could convince you to give up and try another time. Aren't there any better things you could be doing now?"

"I'm truly sorry but this could be the greatest chance for the completion of the ritual we will ever receive," the White Wing Lord said politely. "Even though I have reservations about my remaining compatriots and our chance of success I'm afraid I will not shrink from my purpose." He pulled down his sleeves revealing four command seals. "Neither will my servants."

"At least one of you has absconded," Shirou said to himself. "Was it was Van-Fem who left."

"That was quite an accurate guess," Trhvmn replied. "What gave it away?"

"The twenty four surrounding golems," Shirou stated gesturing at the constructs of steel and wires that he had ignored until now. "That seems like his kind of thing from what I've heard of him. Maybe I'll pay a visit to his party boat once this thing blows over."

"Are you just going to keep talking," Gransurg Blackmoore ended his silence with a voice that sounded partially synthetic. "Not only are you blathering on about the most pointless of topics, but you are deliberately ignoring me. You seem intelligent and I would normally enjoy conversing with you under normal circumstances but every second I waste here is another second that the ritual is not being completed so forgive me if I'm eager to proceed."

Shirou nodded at that. "I also try to avoid long conversations with those I'm going to kill," he said instantly raising his hands and unleashed the abyss to crush his opponents. Ever since he had regained his memories he had started to dislike the name of his trump card. [Amessunu Istenis] referred to a line in the poem Enuma Elish which described the mingling of Abzu and Tiamat, two gods who could go fuck themselves. Not to mention that the whole poem was a bunch of apologetics bullshit.

The abyss coalesced around his four opponents creating a place in which no human could survive, unfortunately for Shirou his opponents were not was forced to almost drop the attack immediately as hundreds of arrows peppered his former position. Shirou stepped back his hands a blur as he deflected dozens of forceful arrows with his bare hands using [time alter].

A flicker in his peripheral vision and he fell to the ground to avoid a clawed hand that would have decapitated him where he stood. Gransurg Blackmoor, his mind supplied as to the identity of his attacker, he didn't remember him having so many mechanical parts. Suddenly his arm swung down creating a sonic boom at the same instant as it impacted Enki. That was Enki the pair of golden swords gifted to him by Gilgamesh, not the god. Shirou was fine and he immediately swivelled his legs attempting to knock the birdlike Dead Apostle off his feet. Gransurg expertly jumped over his strike but Shirou had no more time to follow up with the attack as he had stayed in the space for too long and he was forced to teleport to avoid another hail of arrows shot from the greatest hero of all time. Teleporting above the sixteenth Dead Apostle Ancestor he struck down with a kick that impacted against hard metal and caused the vampire to stumble briefly in midair and land gracefully on all fours.

Regrettably Shirou was now in the air and relatively exposed and he was forced to summon a wall of ice to defend himself from the onslaught of arrows. The wall lasted barely a second as multiple arrows passed through it and Shirou felt one of them pierce his leg. The poison did nothing but it still hurt and slowed him down for a moment and he was unable to react when a metallic foot impacted against his spine booting him towards the Greek Demigod.

He sensed the onrush on arrows and focused his everything into defence against the onslaught. Solid ice coalesced around his body and he pushed the concept of [unbreakable] to form makeshift armour that shrugged off the various impacts he felt as he soared through the air. Resting in the ice he sped pushed his [time alter] to its maximum strength taking advantage of the fact that it was far easier to do when he remained still.

Peering through the ice he quickly evaluated how the fights were going and rapidly came to the conclusion that they were losing overall. Ishtar was fighting against Ozymandias with all her strength killing multiple sphinxes while also engaging the enemy rider, deflecting his blasts of light with her own light arrows. Rin and Gawain were fighting a losing battle against the artistic Caster who had apparently mastered magecraft if his eyes were not deceiving him. Nine was going up against Trhvmn and while the seventeenth Dead Apostle Ancestor had yet to land a decisive blow on Shirou's slippery servant he clearly outclassed Nine before his servant activated his final form. Shirou's two opponents watched and waited for him to drop his defences and the golems still stood there taking no action.

The situation was beyond dire, the odds of everybody surviving were minor and everything was going exactly to plan. Snapping his fingers within the ice he activated the trap he kept in each of the aquifers in case he was forced into combat in that location. Immediately water began to pour into the room at a rate hundreds of gallons per second causing the water level to rapidly rise. Secondly he reformed the water forming it into the giant suit of armour that he employed to such great effect at the end of his fight with Enkidu. Standing up straight in the middle of the fifteen foot giant composed of ice he extended his arms and prepared to kill.

xxx

Rin Tohsaka fired multiple Gandr shots that to her dismay were blocked by shimmering shields that automatically appeared. Gawain moved forward but each and every attack was further blocked by the shields and her answering attacks easily tracked down and pierced his armour forcing the magus to pour more of her prana to heal him.

A simple command and her servant released his Noble Phantasm causing a wave of golden light that raced towards her opponent. Rin watched in horror as the glowing beam simply reversed direction upon colliding with the enemy servant and reflected back upon them. Barely showing any of the panic that she felt she summoned up an ancient piece of defensive magic that she had acquired from one of Zelretche's books. A seven pronged magic circle formed in the air and smoothly transitioned into a three dimensional glowing green shield with seven layers. When the reflected emission from Excalibur Galatine encountered each layer the output diminished until the final product was cut in half by her servant's sword.

"Okay we are not using that again," Rin said to her servant as she discarded a pair of empty gems. Suddenly there battle was cut short as the unmistakable sound of rushing water rang through the underground room. The young magus chanced a glance at Shirou who was now surrounded by what seemed to be some ice-mecha thing and was advancing on his two opponents and looked back to the rising water level.

Sighing briefly she activated the spell that he had shared with her earlier that would allow her to breather underwater. Honestly it was slightly embarrassing that both she and her servant were having trouble with one enemy when everybody else was fighting against at least one or more. Unfortunately she could think of no way to beat her opponent. Da Vinci, as Shirou had named her, was a far superior magus with access to prana reserves even exceeding her own. In addition her magecraft was somehow able to bypass Gawain's B-ranked magic resistance.

Rin took a deep breath as she looked at the placid smile of her opponent. She hadn't pressed the advantage but had responded with overwhelming levels of power whenever she was forced to defend.

"You're not attacking again," Da Vinci said her voice not losing in clarity even as the water level rose above her head. "Have you given up? If you do not want to continue then I will join with my master in attacking the magician," she said as she glanced sideways at the three monsters battling it out.

Shirou was fighting against the Greek demigod at speeds that she could barely track and his armour was repeatedly being shattered by the forces of the hero's punches before freezing and mending itself. At the same time Gransurg Blackmoore was cutting through swathes of armour moving in such a swift manner that she could only perceive for a split second before he disappeared again. Rin found herself pausing for a moment as Shirou teleported the whole ice structure in such a manner that Heracles was kicked with the full force of the multi-ton creation causing him to slide back. At the same time he quickly moved one of his hands and sent a whirlpool that sent the Dead Apostle Ancestor causing him to go flying back into the walls of the room.

"This environment really isn't favourable for Dead Apostles," Leonardo said her voice travelling clearly through the water. "But servants can handle it just fine and the modifications that I put into my masters body should allow him to still function properly. It was such a terrible weakness I couldn't help but remove it," she paused and then almost as an afterthought continued, "no matter how much I wanted to leave it in."

"You're holding back," Rin said feeling almost physical pain as her pride shattered.

"I am," the enemy Caster said. "I am Leonardo da Vinci an omnipotent genius. While you can easily be called a genius due to the qualities of your spells, I am the one person who was heralded as an unrivalled genius in anything that he pursued. Is it not natural that I would have no rival in magecraft?"

Rin's thoughts raced ahead as she tried to comprehend how to deal with this servant. She played over the fight in her head. She had tried gandr shots but the curse had proved ineffective. Streams of fire had been cut short by jets of water and wind had been blocked by rising mountains of earth. One thing had however stuck within her mind. Each and every incantation she used was modern or some ancestor of magecraft. Rin had even recognized a few of the spells that she had used although she had never seen them performed with even a fraction of the skill. The young magus gritted her teeth as she realized that she would never be able to surprise her with any of her numerous spells and that she would be able to counter anything that she threw at her.

Gawain stood by her side stoically his guard never dropping. If it wasn't so serious she would have felt quite bad for her servant. His stats were good but he kept running into incredibly strong servants or servants that could counter him. Leonardo da Vinci seemed to be able to ignore his magic resistance and he couldn't even close on her position without being forced back by the precise retaliation. It was unfortunate because if he could just get in her range he would most likely be able to win instantly due to the disparity in their physical abilities.

A sudden idea struck the young magus and she grinned as hope ignited once more in her breast. Gems dropped into her open hands and she flooded her circuits with prana.

"Be ready," she said to Gawain and then she opened fire.

Shirou had always thought of Rin as a glass cannon and what happened next would not have changed his mind. As an average one Rin could theoretically use all five elements and she quickly put that theory into practice as all spells of earth water and wind powered through the water. Not a single spell got through as they were all expertly countered, but that was fine as Rin didn't really expect any to land. She upped her output even as she knew that the opposing caster was simply more efficient and had a much larger mana pool. She felt her gems dip a bit lower and she drained the last dregs of prana from her jewels reinforcing herself even as she created an explosion.

The explosion rippled through the water causing a massive wave of noise and light that blinded and deafened her temporarily but Rin knew that it would have never damaged the either her or the enemy servant. Still that wasn't what she intended and Rin put the second part of her plan into motion. Using the sound and light as a distraction she channelled a huge quantity of prana into her second command seal and instructed Gawain to teleport.

While she didn't mention the exact location she was thinking it which combined with Gawain's own desires caused the fight to be over pretty soon. The first sight that she saw once the whiteness had receded was that of Da Vinci being impaled from behind through her chest. The smile stayed on her face even as she dissolved into mana.

Suddenly another explosion happened nearby and Rin turned to see half of the room encased in ice. Heracles and Gransurg were frozen and working free of the ice but there was no trace of Shirou.

 **Author Note: This chapter took me far too long and I'm not altogether happy with it. Oh well I'll try to be quicker about it in future.**

 **serialkeller: It's a bit more severe than annoyed. Enki basically split his essence (Kinda Voldemort like now that I think of it) and forced it into the shape of the Sword of Rupture. Even worse is that he killed Ishtar after he created it. Even Enki hates himself for doing that, try imagine what EA feels about him.**

 **SentinalSlice: Generally people with the most experience tend to panic less. Shirou can be so nonchalant because he's been through all kinds of shit already and Enki has been through even more.**

 **As always please read and review.**


	54. Chapter 54

It was a slightly melancholy Trhvmn Ortenrosse that extracted his hand from the chest of the black viscous creature. He recognized the being, or to be more precise he recognized the substance that the being was made of. Trhvmn had wondered for a while what exactly had happened to his friendly acquaintance and he had incurred great expense trying to track down and recover him. Unfortunately his research had led him to discovering that his current residence was in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. He was more than willing to sponsor a submarine to try and retrieve him but he had a feeling that he might be playing into the Water Demon's hands if he did and he was supremely unwilling to try and tangle with a good candidate for the trickiest of the Dead Apostles.

Unfortunately this left him a man down when this newest scheme was proposed by the aforementioned nautical Apostle. In addition many of the other Ancestors that were friendly to him and he could have called on were also indisposed, either sealed away or tangled in their own schemes. As such he was forced to only deal with his using his own subordinates due to the short time frame in which this undertaking could proceed. Sumire had put them all on the spot when she suggested using an obscure Japanese ritual to accelerate the summoning of The Dark Six. This had been two years ago and to his consternation everybody he had consulted with had claimed that it should work. This had put him in the unenviable position of him having to participate in the ritual so that Altrouge Brunestud did not seize unilateral control of The Dark Six as soon as it was completed.

Basically he expected the whole plan to go to shit as soon as it started and he was not disappointed. From the other seven servants that were summoned in response to the six grails that were apparently created just to frustrate their efforts. Even the enemy masters were a cut above the usual rabble that stood for magi. He was equally proud and disappointed to be involved in the defeat of two in particular. While he was happy that he finally killed the Barthomeloi head it burned him that he had to rely on his servant to do so and his servant's defeat of the Magician was tainted by the fact that she was distraught due to the death of her own servant.

He idly dodged the grasping claws of his opponent and with a swift movement of his hands bisected him in two. This creature had potential but was still only a pale imitation of Nrvnqsr and he found himself again wishing that he had his back in the competition. Taking a brief glance to both sides he watched as both of his servants both engaged in pitched battles against the master/servant pair that had teleported into the room in the middle of their engagement. Honestly he was quite annoyed when Van Fem had showed up on his doorstep offering him his last servant. Even the two dozen golems that he had offered him as a consolation gift could not quite dull the rising unease that had formed. Among all the ancestors it was Van Fem who had the best instincts, knowing when to fold 'em he called it, so his retreat didn't say anything good about their chances in the war.

Suddenly the smell and sound of water hit his senses and he casually decapitated the mass of chaos that he was 'fighting' against before he scanned the room. Seeing the water flood the room caused his respect for the architect of these grail chambers to rise but he didn't have time to admire the work done. Water of such quantities had a weakening effect upon vampires and while he had in his thousands of years managed to overcome the weakness somewhat he didn't want to be hampered at all in a fight of this magnitude. Sighing he signalled the golems to move in and deal with his opponent and he jumped up several metres and dug his fingers into the stone of the roof. Holding on he surveyed the room scanning the various fights and evaluating how to proceed. The room that they had entered was rectangular and appeared to be carved out of stone but had no visible grail otherwise he would have concentrated his and his servant's attacks to destroy it immediately and leave. The location was correct but there was no sign of any item that could be the grail in this cavern.

There were only five opponents he realised as he observed the fights. The girl with magneta hair had disappeared, most likely to the same location that the grail was stored he theorized. Breathing in deeply and ignoring the rising water and the remnants of his colleague below he analysed the smells that flooded the chamber.

"There," he said aloud breaking his silence. The unmistakeable smell of fresh blood that flowed through living veins told him that the last human had retreated to a location behind that wall. Taking barely a moment to consider his course of action he moved swiftly along the ceiling like a spider, hands and feet digging into the stone of the roof. Without slowing down he barrelled through the wall and entered into another equally sized chamber. There was however one principle difference. In the centre of the room a four foot high pillar churned with magical energy.

Standing in front of the pillar giving him a wary glance was the magneta haired magus who had disappeared when the rest of them fought. Apparently she was to be the last line of defence in case anybody managed to sneak past the fighters. She had already taken a martial arts stance that appeared to be built towards striking although he did not recognize the specific style. He dropped down onto the floor giving her a once over. She was wearing a simple black suit of the kind he often favoured. She wore gloves that were tattooed with runes and the aged vampire instantly deduced her form of magecraft. Trhvmn Ortenrosse straightened up and adopted his own style. She was but a child but she at least showed some promise, against his better judgement he decided to play around with her for a bit before he destroyed the grail.

A false lunge at barely above the speed of a standard exorcist was blocked and countered by the younger woman and she lashed out with a punch which he quickly deflected. She drove forward with a rapid series of punches and kicks and he retreated as turned his body to avoid each of them. He retaliated with a single punch that almost knocked her off her feet. Surprisingly the suit-wearing magus recovered quickly and lashed out with a combo of punches that he blocked and finished with a kick aimed at his left side that he caught with his left hand.

She withdrew and with a slight turn she lashed out with her foot at the other side. He caught it with his other hand wondering briefly at what she was intending with this strategy when a slight tingling on both his hands revealed the truth. The magus dove to the side and away as both his hands exploded shredding the powerful limbs as if they were paper. Almost immediately she was up again and launching powerful punches at his chest that he didn't even attempt to dodge as they failed to even make him flinch. After a few moments for her to get her shots in he struck back with the stump of his arm the flesh materializing with such speed that a full healed hand struck the magus causing her to go flying back against the hard side of the building. He shook his newly reformed hands as he stepped forward to inspect the lesser grail. The pillar flickered with countless runes that proclaimed the presence of magecraft but he had no knowledge of magecraft and therefore he wasted no time in deciphering the object.

He punched forward with strength that would be able to crush a mountain and to his utmost amazement a barrier arose that prevented the pillar from being destroyed. He frowned and instantly struck the pillar again creating a vacuum from the sheer speed of his strike and this time he was gratified to see a few of the runes grow dim.

Suddenly the sound of rushing water invaded the room and he turned to see the magus girl standing facing him with her hand on a blue tinted rune that had remained inconspicuous before now. She was breathing heavily and other hand was clutching her chest where he had hit her. From the walls multiple holes began spewing water.

"Interesting," Trhvmn mused out loud as the pieces began to click in his head. "You don't have the ability to fight underwater otherwise you would have fought against me in the other room." He looked at her facial expressions to see if she would let anything slip through but she remained stoic. "If you continue to flood this area you will drown." Her face took on a look of determination as he spoke but she refused to back down. "So be it," he said nodding.

He kept his eyes on her as he pulled back his arm to launch another devastating punch and he wasn't surprised to see her charge towards him, her feet causing splashes as she sprinted across the wet floor. She lashed out with a kick that he ducked under as he drove his fist into the runes again causing a few more to splutter. He punched upwards towards her chin but she caught the punch in both hands and she used the momentum to vault herself over him launching a punch towards his own jaw that he evaded by tilting his head slightly.

Giving her no time to recover he twisted and lashed out with a clawed hand that would have bisected her in two. She evaded by a hairs-breath and stepped forward through his guard and lashed out with multiple punches that would have crushed the bones of any lesser Dead Apostle. Trhvmn took those blows on the chest as he contemplated the battle form of this girl who still fought against him despite being vastly outmatched. She was good, he admitted with a smile upon his face, but she was severely outmatched. He whipped forth his fist stopping it just in front of her body and with a sonic boom the fighting magus was flung across the room again.

Yes, while she was probably the second strongest pure human that she had fought in a while, after that disappointing battle with Lorelei Barthomeloi, it was a far difference between the two of them. While she had some wonderful moves she lacked the edge that the strongest fighters, the true heroes had. Trhvmn Ortenrosse had met many heroes in his time, he had actually fought the original Heracles back in ancient Greece and he still felt phantom pains from the one-sided drubbing he got in that particular wrestling match. Still he would under normal circumstances offer her the gift of Crimson Moon and invite her to work under him. Maybe after a few millenia she could even join the twenty-seven.

Unfortunately he had no time for that now as the water level reached his knees and he could feel the slight drain of his powers that accompanied the presence of bodies of water. A rapid series of punches caused more and more of the runes to dim. His instinct flared and he ducked as a swipe that would have broken his neck soared to the side. Twisting his body he lashed out with a blow that would have crushed the female magi's ribs if it connected. It didn't as at the same instant that he lashed out an immense amount of mana surged and a tremendous explosion resounded throughout the room causing the entire floor to shake. At the exact same time Trhvmn felt his connection to Van Fem's servant unravel and he instantly knew that his servant Rider had been the recipient of whatever attack that was and he was almost certainly dead.

He didn't have much time to ponder it as his momentary distraction created an opportunity that the combat magus capitalised on by landing the first clean blow of the match into his throat. As he gripped his crushed trachea he admitted to himself that it was a magnificent blow but that didn't give him any consolation as he went stumbling back into the lesser grail.

He felt the last of the ruins splutter as he leant against the pillar and with a short whack he finally disabled the barrier. He faced down the magus taking note of the fact that though she was breathing heavily and favouring her left side she still looked like she was determined to fight. He watched as she with one hand withdrew a familiar looking item from a case.

"Fragarach, really?" he said looking over her dubiously. He supposed he couldn't fault her ignorance. Noble Phantasm's were rare enough in this day and age that she could be forgiven for never learning that Dead Apostle's had the power to seal them. Still he had no desire to mock her lack of understanding. Concentrating power he focused Od into a single punch that had the power to eradicate her instantly. In an instant he was upon her drawing back his punch with the intent to erase her and then he stopped. Stepping backwards the White Wing Lord clutched at his chest and noted the perfectly spherical hole in the middle of it. His eyes grew dim as he noticed for the first time that the glove of the Fraga was ripped and there was a black substance that coursed from beneath it. "Of course," he thought as a regretful smile stole over his face. "It only works against Noble Phantasm's wielded by humans. While she may have released the Noble Phantasm it was Chaos who wielded the blade." He felt his respect for her rise at successfully pulling off such a cunning ploy. What was going to happen next was a true pity.

Trhvmn Ortenrosse stood up with no marks upon him as the curse of restoration restored him to his peak strength. He had pulled his attack at the last moment but he was almost certainly would survived Fragarach even if it had the opportunity to display it's full power. Unlike servants who were vulnerable in both of their cores located in their heads and hearts, Dead Apostle Ancestors could easily walk off such a little amount of flesh damage and return to the fight. It was a good try and it would have possibly killed some of the members of his faction but it ultimately fell short when it was used against him.

He watched as her face showed alarm for the first time in their match and he idly stretched out his muscles waiting for her to make the next move. Her composure broken she did just that as she rushed him with superhuman speed swinging Fragarach in a manner akin to a sword. It was a good idea to slash as opposed to stab and would do more damage to him and even though the usage was not ideal Fragarach was still a Noble Phantasm and thus would be able to penetrate his flesh. Regrettably for her even superhuman speed was a crawl compared to him and a single punch to the centre of her chest lead to a brutal cracking sound and her collapsing under the knee high water.

Turning away from the magus Trhvm eyed the now exposed Lesser Grail. With the barrier down the feeling of prana was almost oppressive in its intensity. He waded forward through the water and drew back his fist and in the next instant he slammed it down into the grail causing it to rupture instantly. A brief sense of satisfaction arose in him for the smallest of moments before he felt his hand be sucked inside the broken form of the pillar. Startled he attempted to drag his hand out of the trap but the more force that he pulled the more force that was returned and he felt his arm disappear into the massively condensed mass of prana inch by inch. Even as he pulled with the force of millions of Newtons he found himself losing ground steadily. As a last ditch measure he tore his own arm off and let the limb be sucked into the swirling mass of prana.

He sighed in relief and immediately regretted it when he felt a powerful force hit his back plunging him forward into the trap. Even as he was sucked in he turned his head and saw the broken and beaten force of that Fraga in a suit whose name he regretted not knowing. Pulling back against the all devouring force he used muscles that had remained dormant for centuries and tapped into his full inhuman strength. Using impossible force he halted the suction through sheer brute force. Twisting he turned his body to gaze at the magus that had managed to push him to such a state and took one step forward. For an instant the all-consuming gravity of the Grail trap warred with the unmatched strength of the oldest living Dead Apostle and a deadly silence rang throughout the room as immovable object warred with unstoppable force. Then the Grail exploded turning the air white and instantly vaporising the water in the room.

xxx

"It's really a shame," Trhvmn said to the body that lay still on the floor. A mangled black suit and a mangled body were all that remained of one of the finest Magi for him to fight in a long time. The bomb that the Lesser Grail had turned into upon its destruction had been a powerful surprise and it had taken him a lot of energy to survive and recover. He stared at the moon as he felt the cooling night air and contemplated his choice to retrieve the magus. Her heartbeat already faint seemed to fade with every second and she would undoubtedly die soon.

Turning back to regard her he noticed a flicker of black that poked out from her suit and let out a quiet chuckle. "So that was how she managed to get up," he said to himself in bemusement. "To think I would see the day Nrnqsr saved a human."

Shaking his head he finally decided to go ahead and do what he had been contemplating since the fight began. He was tired of this war and he was quite low on energy. If he went up against some of the monsters in the opposition he would probably die and despite his great age he wasn't quite ready for that yet. He felt more than saw his servant rise up through the roof to his side and he gave him an inquiring look as he walked towards the downed magus.

"Their Rider killed ours with her Noble Phantasm," the copy of Heracles said. "Apparently she could summon the bull of heaven."

"Truly," Trhvmn said suddenly thankful of his choice to gracefully bow out in the face of an actual goddess. "How was Gransurg doing?"

"We were doing okay," his servant replied. "Their Rider was tired, the cold water weakened the black liquid man and the other two were not anything special. "If I hadn't left then we may have prevailed."

Trhvmn made a noncommittal sound as he moved towards the downed magus. Holding a hand over the ruin that was her mouth he took note of the fact that she was breathing. A hand on her wrist confirmed that her pulse was also weak but steady.

"What are you doing Master?" his servant Archer inquired curiously.

"It still feels wrong for you to call me that," Trhvmn said recalling memories of a much different Heracles. "At least it won't be for much longer," he said and with a swift motion he dug his fangs into the neck of the Fraga whose name he did not know.

 **Author Note: Story might be a bit rough. Didn't check it thoroughly. Fun fact: Getting stabbed in the heart is not always instantly fatal depending on the size and location of the wound.**

 **SentinalSlice: Shirou is rather strong but there is no point in even comparing. The only actual example we have of a full powered god in the Nasuverse is Amaterasu who pulls Hakuno Kishinami millennia backwards in time and it is specifically stated that only Arcueid Brunestud is capable of bringing her down to circumstances where it is possible to beat her. Even a weak god could be considered omnipotent and Enki is by no stretch of the imagination a weak god.**

 **Frost3d: I've tried to write Omakes but I can never seem to quite get the humour right. Sorry about that.**

 **Guest: True and also a bit false. I'm going to be annoying because I learnt far too much Nasu trivia in the process of writing this fanfic. Gilgamesh's rejection of the God's was the initial thing that prevented a resurgence in the Age of Gods. By the time of the Golden King (about 3000BC) the Age of the God's was already ending and Gods could not properly manifest in the world. It officially ended at about 500AD with King Arthur.**

 **I didn't actually consider the similarities between Enki and Yahweh in that aspect. Fun fact if you were to actually look at the accounts of both the gods you would find a lot of other similarities between the two.**

 **Please Read and Review**


	55. Chapter 55

"For a humanoid to move on the surface of the water requires a minimum speed of eighty kilometres per hour," Shirou had said to Satsuki as he effortlessly stood on the surface of the pool in his backyard. "Furthermore the motion has to be consistent," he continued. "If you slow or stop for even a moment you will begin to sink beneath the waves and then you will be forced to expend more energy to stay on the surface."

These words flashed through Satsuki's mind as she turned to avoid another one of the umpteen creatures and stretching out her hand she instantly bisected it without slowing down for a moment. Her hands were adorned with crystalline gloves that cut through armour and flesh alike with minimal resistance. There was a manageable drain on prana where the flesh met crystal and Satsuki frowned as she tried to regulate the needs of her new gauntlets with those of her body. Reaching that all-important balance she dashed forward causing streams of water to jet out behind her as she headed towards her opponent at speeds surpassing that of sound.

Sumire merely raised her hand and Satsuki found her entire body instantly bisected vertically as some of the air in front of her became as hard as steel. There was a feeling of vertigo as her brain was divided cleanly into two pieces and she couldn't think for the moment before her regeneration kicked in and the two halves fused together.

That momentary delay had caused her to slow down and she felt the waters drag her underneath. She shifted her body slightly adapting to the aquatic region and raised her hands just in time to prevent a punch from Sumire from caving in her chest area. Instead the Dead Apostles Ancestor's hands were shattered when they impacted against the impossibly tough gloves that she now wore. Satsuki tried to capitalise on her injury but she found herself dragged down by the water and thrown deep into the ocean. She hit the rocky depths of the sea floor instantly and flooded the depths with primordial soup from her Reality Marble killing the dozens of creatures that surrounded her and providing some defence against the almighty power of Sumire's Marble Phantasm.

She didn't have any time to catch her breath as in the next second the ground rose up in an attempt to bury her underneath and she was forced to move. Darting up from the depths she felt the air grow colder and she was forced to shift her biology until her blood was boiling to melt the ice that was forming around her. She almost reached the surface when she was forced to swerve to avoid another one of Sumire's attacks. The crafty ancestor deliberately avoided her arms and legs and instead Satsuki felt her leg beneath the knee disappear as Sumire slashed it off with a single swipe of her claws. Biting her tongue in pain Satsuki swivelled changing her vocal chords and tried to replicate the sonic attack that she had cribbed from one of the many oceanic species that she had killed previously.

The attack was successful and she watched without any real hope as Sumire retreated from the vicious soundwaves. Bursting out of the water she circled the surface waiting for the Ancestor's next move. Winged creatures dove with wicked teeth and claw to strip flesh from her bone and she idly destroyed them while reinforcing her eyes to pick up any movement from beneath the oceans.

Her vigilance paid off and she swerved from her course as the water exploded in front of her. She dodged back but both her arms were severed by a single kick from Sumire and she had to quickly reattach them before her crystal gauntlets were lost. She ducked under Sumire's lunge and tried to drive her fist through the older woman's spine but she was unsuccessful as Sumire with no apparent means of locomotion launched herself into the air evading Satsuki.

Sumire remained standing upright in the air watching Satsuki with an odd look upon her face. Satsuki meanwhile grew huge scaled wings on her back and modified her bones and muscular structure. Sumire was weaker out of water and this might be the break she needed to gain the advantage. "Caster," she said as her wings flapped causing her to slowly ascend into the air. "How is my story looking?"

"An author who parades an incomplete story should be cut up and fed to the animals so that their body can be of some use to the world," the extremely rude words of her servant arose from the servant who sat on a nearby outcrop of rock in the ocean.

"What should happen to an author who changes his work to pander to the fans," Satsuki asked as her wings beat faster and faster. She looked up and noticed that the water above had turned stormy and the crystalline tentacles had arisen from the depths.

"They forfeit all rights to be called an author," Hans Christian Anderson espoused. "I would rather boil myself alive than write a subpar story."

"Yeah," Satsuki said with a tinge of regret in her voice. She lunged forward beating her wings and she was met halfway by the underwater vampire that had taught her everything she knew. They clashed and Satsuki came to the realisation that she was both stronger and faster than Sumire and that she also had no way of beating her. Any punch, any kick was dodged before she even started attacking and each one of Sumire's responses was expertly timed and left her body in shambles, bypassing her tough skin and bones and forcing her to regenerate multiple times.

"So this is the difference that skill makes," Satsuki said with a nostalgic grin as she exchanged blows with Sumire.

"Don't feel so down Satsu," Sumire said smiling back. "I've done a lot in a thousand years," she dived down to avoid a lung of the crystalline tentacle as she did so. "I've fought and killed far stronger. That's the kind of experience you can't get in four years of training."

"Is that so," Satsuki said turning to block one of the otherworldly crystals. Her gloves clashed with the crystal of the beast and she let the momentum of the swing carry her towards Sumire. "I just wanted to surpass you on my own merits," Satsuki said shaking her head. "Do you know my servants special ability?"

"I don't actually," Sumire said. "I did see him manifest that cute mermaid's tale a few nights ago but that didn't seem like his trump card."

"Correct," Satsuki said. "His true Noble Phantasm allows him to write a person's story, creating coincidences that allow a person to grow into their ideal form," she said as she jokingly flexed her muscles. "In other words, if there was a believable way for me to win I would have already won."

Sumire frowned and the two of them moved apart to dodge another of the tentacles that split the sea and sky apart as it lunged. Up above the ocean bubbled away as a hideous crustaceanic face appeared with multiple compound eyes that leered at the two of them.

"I'm sorry Sumi," Satsuki said. "My greatest desire was to surpass you but some things right now are more important than my desires." She looked down at her servant who was still scratching away at his book. "Caster, I would love to say it was a pleasure working with you but I would be lying. With my last command seal I command you "Write my victory"." Prana rolled off Satsuki as she overpowered the effects of her last command seal and suddenly she was filled with a feeling of certainty.

"Very well Master," Anderson said furiously writing away at his book. "I suppose sacrificing the author for a victory won't be such a bad story. It will provide a nice twist to the reader and end on a cliffhanger which makes them contemplate the ultimate effects of the exchange." Even as he spoke parts of his body had begun to flake off and Satsuki could feel his prana dwindling.

She flapped her wings rocketing at her former mentor and extended her hands lashing out with the deadly crystals. Sumire expertly judged the trajectory and instantly evaded the attack letting the sharpened claws fly past her shoulder as she lashed out with a brutal kick that punctured through…

Sumire stumbled back her face contorted in a grimace of pain. Disbelief entered her eyes as she laid her eyes on the stump of her left arm. For an infinitesimal moment the two opponents stared at each other as they both saw a miss turn into a hit and then Satuski went on the offensive. A swipe of her hand barely missed the Dead Apostle…

Her gauntlet cut deep into Sumire's stomach causing an explosion of body fluids and she stepped back only for a clawed hand to rip through her thro…

The hand missed her and she struck back only to get knocked away into the path of a crystal tentacle that tore her…

She dodged the tentacle and flapped her wings against the appendage to launch herself at the Dead Apostle Ancestor. Sumire saw her coming and bleeding profusely she dropped down into the ocean. Satsuki made to follow her when she felt a sharp pain in her head…

Satsuki swivelled her head watching as a powerful jet of water shot out from the ocean clipping her ear and sandpapering a portion of her skull. She tucked in her wings and dove down driving a hand into the sternum of her mentor. The blow connected solidly and Sumire was run through and left hanging on the arm of her apprentice. Only now did Satsuki manage to get a good look at her injuries and it was a horrific sight. The arm that had been severed had not healed and Satsuki could see the nauseating sight of Sumires shredded organs. Nothing was fixing itself; the curse of restoration was not healing her.

"Type Mercury rejects healing derived from the world," Sumire exposited and Satsuki could hear the agony in her quiet voice. "You got me good," she said smiling. Around her Satsuki watched as the world seemed to shiver. "I'm sorry," Sumire said. "You and Shirou have made me so happy."

"Don't speak," Satsuki said gingerly withdrawing her arm and immediately regretting it as she took in the sight of crushed vertebrae and shredded lungs.

"I love you," Sumire said pressing on. "These last few years I've finally remembered how it felt to be happy. I was alone for so long," she said and there was a slight trace of bitterness in her voice that immediately faded. She paused and then opened her mouth to make some last comment or piece of advice but then smiled and with that last smile her body crumbled into ash.

"As she stared up at her beloved protégé she thought about the many pieces of advice that she could bestow upon her, advice acquired over her exceptionally long lifetime. Alternately she thought about saying some of the things that she had never mentioned to her, like the fact that she considered her to be a daughter, but decided not to trouble her. Lastly she considered wishing her Satsu a long and happy life but then staring at her disciple holding her defeated body she knew that she came to the realisation that she wouldn't need any wishes or luck to go far. Having come to that realisation Sumire smiled at one of the few people that mattered to her as she succumbed to the blackness."

Hans Christian Anderson closed the book with a resounding snap. "It's pitiable writing," he said. "But I'm afraid I lack the currency of minutes and hours to create an appropriate death scene," he said as his voice faded and his body continued to dissolve.

"I thought it was nice," Satsuki said choking on the words as she turned towards her fading servant.

"Good," Caster said. "It's yours now." He tossed her the book and she expertly caught it. "Try to write a satisfying conclusion to the war," he said before completely fading away into dust.

Satsuki stared at the book as she dropped to the ground while the ocean beneath her faded. Slowly walking forward she was unsurprised to find tears flowing freely from her eyes and she could no longer stem them anymore than she could turn off the sun. Her emotions felt numb, muted as if they existed separate from her body and miles away.

She breathed in the cool air of the night as she stood alone beneath the moon and just waited for the world to stop spinning. It didn't and she collapsed to her knees as her legs lost the ability to keep her up. Her head was screaming and her heart was racing but her nerves felt to numb to respond. She almost managed to get her body under control when a crack shattered the silence of the night.

From the empty air countless crystalline tentacles emerge and Satsuki was reminded of the very real threat that these remnants of Mercury possessed. She stumbled but managed to get up and she raised her empty hands in a defensive stance. More and more of the beast emerged and Satsuki swallowed as she took in the size of it. It must have been at a minimum fifty metres in height and the reach of its tentacles far surpassed its elevation and she wondered how something of that size could actually exist. An idle part of her mind was wondering how she could obtain some DNA from it but she shut out that part quickly.

Taking a deep breath she let her crystalline claws draw more of her prana and she managed to avoid the first of the crystalline tentacles that whipped out destroying swathes of the park. She flew up in the flapping her scaly wings and trying in vain to find some form of weak spot which would allow her to topple this behemoth. A prickle down her neck was the only warning she got as she twisted her body to block the rapidly approaching tentacle with her gloves.

The pain was almost unbearable and she felt one of her arms wrench out of its socket as her body bounced along the ground gouging out a trench with her face. Spitting loose a tooth she shakily got to her knees, the ringing in her ears fading into the sound of approaching footsteps.

"Praying to Gaia?" a feminine voice inquired and Satsuki looked up to the sight of a pair of black and white eyes. Even if she hadn't met the woman before she had heard enough second hand accounts from Shirou.

"Narbareck," she identified the woman in front of her. Blinking she scrambled to her feet. "Be careful," she said facing the writhing crystalline monstrosity. "That thing was made…"

She didn't have the chance to say anything more as in an instant the creature that had seemed an insurmountable challenge had all but disintegrated before her eyes leaving nothing but small pieces of smouldering flesh that proved her parasite theory. Turning her head back towards the head of the burial squad she noticed for the first time that she was holding a rifle in her left hand that she was currently lowering.

"A relic owned by the church," she answered Satsuki's unanswered question. "It was created by Atlas and stored for the purpose of providing a viable counter to Type-class enemies."

"Right," said Satsuki awkwardly not knowing how to continue the conversation with the stranger.

"There is no need to pretend to be interested," she said. "I'm just going to rest for a moment and then I have to get back to laying the dead to rest."

"How bad is it?" Satsuki asked, dreading the answer.

A flicker of emotion showed in Narbareck's eyes before it disappeared. "Horribly," she said. "Apparently the Aylesbury ritual was not a binary thing. Even though it hasn't been completed the dead are being driven out in force."

"There are a lot of dead in Fuyuki," Satsuki said commiserating with the head of the burial squad.

"No," she said rejecting Satsuki's presence. "Outside of the ancestors and those with them there are no other vampires inside Fuyuki." She smiled at Satsuki's eyes rising but it quickly faded. "There are over forty thousand piles of ash that were not there earlier in the evening. I just returned from helping the American army route out some of the vampires attacking their country."

Satsuki's eyes were wide at the sheer information contained within those few sentences. She opened her mouth to demand clarification when she was disrupted by the sound of a haunting piano. To her surprise Narbareck reached flicked open a phone that was not in her hand a second ago. Holding up a finger to indicate quiet the head of the burial squad listened to the voice on the other side of the phone.

"I understand," she said. Putting down the phone Satsuki watched as the phone disappeared from her fingers and only now noticed that the gun she was previously holding was also not there. "I have to go to Moscow," she said to the other woman. "Please do your best to stop this ritual before my job gets any more challenging."

"Wait," Satsuki said reaching out her arm to stop her from leaving without answering any more of her questions. She was forestalled from phrasing any of the questions when an explosion lit up the night with such intensity that it momentarily felt like noon.

"You should probably get that," Narbareck said and in the next breath she was gone.

"I probably should," Satsuki said to herself despite wanting nothing more than to curl up and go to sleep. She turned around and almost tripped over something in the grass. Reaching down to pick up the object she felt sadness well within her breast again as she stared at Caster's book that must have fallen out of her hands sometime during the excitement.

Her eyes were dry as she read the last paragraph again and her heart was gripped with an intense feeling of determination. "I'll get through this," she promised herself. "And I'll make sure you're remembered Sumire. I'll make sure nobody ever forgets any of us."

 **Author Note: Anybody recognize Narbareck's weapon?**

 **snowyassass1n: Yes. Pretty much.**

 **SentinalSlice: Emiya Achilles Heracles Ishtar Shiki Gawain Karna**

 **hyperomegasonic26: Yes**


	56. Chapter 56

Shirou materialised in an underground chamber without a sound and yet not one of the occupants so much as twitched a muscle. Arcueid and Shiki sat chatting on two comfy looking reclining chairs discussing movies they had both seen. Apparently the servant Shiki's Arcueid was also a connoisseur of movies and the pair of them had seen a great many back when they were together. Unfortunately the few seconds of conversation he overheard swiftly informed him that the films that they were in such heavy discussion were Arcueid movies and he was sorely tempted to turn around and leave the room.

He didn't turn around and leave because that would be stupid considering the current situation. He was already forced to abandon his fight when the alarm attached to his bounded field went off and a short scan of the surrounds told him that his aid was more urgently needed here. The last thing he saw was the death of the enemy Caster and he mentally commanded Ishtar to go all out in killing her opponent leaving somewhat favourable odds for his team if she were to succeed.

"Hey Shirou," Arcueid said as he strode forward towards the pair. "What do you think makes a good romantic comedy?"

"Brevity," the magician replied without slowing down. "Can you sense that?"

"I'm pretty sure that even the Tiger could have sensed that," Arcueid said standing up from her comfy chair. "What happened to her anyway?"

"A compulsion to stay home mixed with some minor bounded fields," Shirou replied shrugging his shoulders. "I would give her stronger protections but it would likely draw attention." Shirou frowned briefly. "Honestly if I knew it was going to be this bad I would have given her a ticket to some European country."

"I'm sure if you knew how bad it was going to get you probably would have done a lot of things differently," Shiki said speaking to Shirou for a change. In all honesty Shirou had avoided speaking to him before as the young man was a somewhat painful reminder of the first person he had failed to save and the servant seemed to pick up on that.

"Yeah probably," he said as he counted down the seconds. "Primate Murder, Altrouge Brunestud, Achilles, Rizo-Waal Strout and Altrouge's servant. If we can defeat them here then the war will be as good as over.

"That's a bit of a tall order," Shiki said mirroring Shirou's thoughts. "Even in my old world I wouldn't have dared to take on Altrouge or Primate Murder."

Shirou nodded. "If I had a few decades more I would probably hunt down the Beast of Gaia myself. Unfortunately we're both short on time and resources. We most likely will not be able to hold this outpost and if prior data holds true Altrouge Brunestud will go directly for the lesser grail. We need to thin out their numbers so that we can effectively hold at the final outpost."

"I don't know if I can kill Primate Murder," Arcueid said with some doubt.

"I'm not sure I can either," Shirou commiserated. "Can you do me a favour and stall him for a bit. I want to battle the red one."

"That's unusual," Arcueid said with an unspoken question in her voice. "That would leave Shiki to fight Strout and Achilles alone. No offence Shiki but those aren't very good odds."

"None taken," the assassin servant said. "I don't fancy my odds against the two of them. Maybe if I fight defensively I can stall until you are finished."

"Please give me your knife," Shirou said after a moment of thought. Shiki handed it over without any fuss and Shirou accessed the fourth appending the concept of divinity onto the weapon turning it into a pseudo-divine construct.

"It should be able to harm Achilles now," Shirou said offering no further explanation.

Shiki asked no questions and took the blade back feeling the weight of the knife and nodding in satisfaction. "You have far more to lose in this war," he stated standing up from his seat. "From what I've seen you seem to be the sort to always have a plan, so I'll trust you to do what's best."

"They're coming," Arcueid said interrupting the conversation.

Whipping his head towards the far side of the warehouse Shirou sensed multiple figures on the side of the door. He easily picked up the presence of the five opponents that he had met previously and sighed when he felt the existence of about a dozen more.

A knock sounded on the door and then two more in rapid succession when the first was not answered immediately.

"Should somebody get that," Arcueid said, but nobody provided a response and the last True Ancestor huffed and crossed her arms.

Abruptly the stillness in the warehouse was shattered as the door exploded inwards flying towards the three standing figures. The door was intercepted by Shiki who with a swift stab reduced the encroaching wall into flakes of rust.

From the gap a dozen vampires emerged bearing down onto the party with speed that would have rendered them invisible to the untrained eye. No mere dead, a single glance was enough to ensure Shirou that these were vampires that had lived for hundreds of years and survived all that had been thrown at them so far. These were monsters that had wiped out towns and forced squads of enforcers and executors to hunt them down with only minor success. They were blight on the world that only got stronger over time, as their body and mind soared past the comparably pitiful limits of their former mortality.

The closest vampire barely got halfway before a jet of water pierced right through the centre of his throat. While he could normally have recovered from that quite easily he lacked the opportunity as his entire body exploded into a cloud of blood and in the next half-second the next three vampires were pierced through the chest with lances of blood. They stumbled and in the second the three of them had turned around and attacked those behind them. The vampire rush ground to a halt as the remaining elite vampires dissolved into an orgy of blood and violence.

Thankfully the skirmish was over extremely quickly and Shirou stepped forwards over the ash and rust to politely greet his five visitors.

"Really," the Magician said. "This late in the game and you're throwing cannon fodder at us."

"Sorry," a wickedly beautiful raven-haired girl replied. "I brought them here and I kept forgetting to use them." She huffed in a manner that was disturbingly akin to Arcueid. "You know how it is, you keep saying I'll wait for the right time to use them, or I'll save it until I need it, but you forget and then you're left with a bunch of things and no reason to use them."

"I can't say I've ever had that particular problem," Shirou said looking slightly disconcerted.

"Yeah well just wait until you get to my age," she said flashing a lively grin. "Wait a minute," she said her smile fading as she gave him a pensive look. "We haven't met, have we? You look slightly familiar. Did I perhaps bite one of your ancestors?"

"Pretty unlikely," Shirou said answering shortly. Despite her remaining quiet he could almost feel the irritation emanating from Arcueid. Apparently she really didn't like her pseudo-sister. "Why don't we call this thing off," Shirou said with very little hope in his voice.

"Hmm," Altrouge said and she looked briefly like she was considering it. "No, I don't feel like it. How about you join me and become a Dead Apostle," she said and Shirou could almost feel his back burning from the heat of Arcueid's gaze. "Sumire killed one of my lieutenants and I've been missing him for a while." She stopped as if something just occurred to her and she looked at Shirou with a somewhat hungry. "You're actually pretty cute. We could have plenty of fun together," she said suggestively.

"I would rather not," Shirou said as despite the girl's attractiveness he could practically feel the hatred from Arcueid boil over at this point.

"Oh," Altrouge said, her eyes widening. "Is it because I'm too old, I mean you are Japanese."

"Okay fuck this," Arcueid said borrowing one of Shirou's favourite words and in the next second Shirou watched in fatalistic enjoyment as he watched a massive chunk of earth held together by specific circumstances that could have only been replicated by the use of Marble Phantasm launch past him and into the massive form of Primate Murder where it crumbled away into dust.

Shirou sighed. "I guess diplomacy has failed," he said and with a single gesture a massive wave of water bore down on Strout and Achilles. Turning his head to fix on his target he watched as the True Ancestor charged into the massive form of the Beast of Gaia causing the two of them to go sprawling through the metal walls which bent like aluminium. Altrouge was already gone which meant that she likely was going to destroy the lesser grail and Shirou found himself in the unenviable position of having lots to do and little time to do it.

Steeling himself he teleported inside the guard of the red-cloaked servant with the familiar features and thrust forward with his hand. The push connected with zero time for the servant to dodge and he injected prana straight into the pseudo-blood of his opponent thrusting him forward and through the wall of the warehouse.

Shirou walked forward and stepped through the hole in the wall casually catching a pair of swords that looked to skewer his vital organs. He lifted up one of the swords and admired the craftsmanship. Covering his hand in ice he crushed the sword watching as it dispersed into prana.

"Some modified and greatly improved form of gradation air," Shirou said casually strolling towards the wary servant, looking for all intents and purposes like a man going for a night-time walk. That is if you could ignore the fact that he was still wearing Kiritsugu's cloak which made him look inherently suspicious. "By including the recreation of an objects history you improve stability causing, at a minimum, the world to be more accepting of the existence of the aforementioned object. That's quite an interesting piece of magecraft," Shirou said smiling with a bit of warmth. "But no less than I would expect from myself."

"What do you mean," the servant said drawing that pair of white and black swords that he seemed especially familiar with.

"Are you really going to play dumb Shirou," the Magician with the same name said. "We have the same facial features on the one hand and the second hand contains the fact that I can see the history and concept of anything I lay my eyes upon."

"I don't go by that name anymore," the red-cloaked counter guardian said suddenly drawing out a bow letting his sword disintegrate into the background mana. Shirou cocked an eyebrow and teleported behind him landing a kick that would have snapped a normal man's spine. The alternate version of him was a lot tougher and he managed to twist out of the way getting a glancing blow for his troubles.

"So what can I do for you Emiya," Shirou said stepping back out of the range of one of his black swords."

"Well if you killed yourself it would make my job much easier," the dry reply came from the red-cloaked servant and Shirou summoned his golden blades to block the onslaught of black and white. Immediately he realised that his alternate had better pure sword skills then him. Although considering Shirou's sword skills hovered somewhere between 'fuck' and 'all' on a good day that was very understandable. Letting the blades push him backwards Shirou slid his foot along the ground coating the entire floor with slippery ice and then materialised a flood from the nearly immeasurable reserves of water in his body. The servant hit the ground taking a knee and sliding backwards but still holding his swords defensively.

"Do you know when I first saw your ability to replicate a sword I thought it to be eerily similar to the First Magic. You know of the First True Magic," Shirou said conversationally as he disappeared from the spot and reappeared a dozen metres backwards leaning against a wall. "But I've come to think about it for about," Shirou adopted a contemplating position. "A couple second and I've come to the conclusion that your trick more closely resembles the Fourth True Magic." Shirou dropped the pair of gold swords into the ground letting them sink into the concrete. From his hands to streams of water arose forming into the shape of two familiar Chinese swords. "After all what is a Noble Phantasm but a very unique concept."

At the end of the sentence he stepped forward altering space so that he appeared in front of the counter-guardian swinging down his blades in an attempt to divest his opponent of his limbs. His opponent reacted quickly, stepping back and redirecting the blows but Shirou wasn't slowing. Kanshou and Byakuya were conceptually simple and aside from giving a boost to magical and physical resistance of the wielder were rather shit, relying on the inherent skill of a wielder who had very little.

Still skill could be overcome in some situations and this situation qualified. Shirou was stronger than his alternate, using [time alter] he was faster than his alternate and his swords created of immensely durable ice shattered their weaker counterparts. Still Shirou had to admit that Emiya's style was incredible and something to be respected. His intense ability to read the flow of battle and react as well as his habit of deliberately leaving pseudo-openings that closed like a trap was something he had never seen in his life as Shirou Inke and seldom seen in his life as Enki. Unfortunately the style relied on taking advantage of those who were so experienced at combat that they automatically took those opportunities and their lack of knowledge of how to counter the style. Shirou was neither of those things.

Locking his blades momentarily he let go of his left blade leaving the sword hanging in the air by his will and magecraft alone and with swift action punched the servant straight in the chest. The red-cloaked foe was sent skidding back along the ground and Shirou shook the feeling of having punched an iron wall out of his hand.

"You can actually understand my confusion," Shirou said continuing his conversation from earlier. "Do you know that the First and Fourth Magic actually reflect each other," Shirou said that conversational tone returning to his voice. A pair of black and white swords rushed towards him spinning at high speeds and he casually deflected them away from his torso ignoring them as they whirled behind him. "It's true," he said watching as the servant dashed towards him. "The First True Magic arose when God snapped his fingers at the beginning of the universe." A pair of icy arms grew from his shoulders, catching the pair of blades that were striking at his back, and at the same time he sped up time shattering the blades that were wielded by his enemy. A final pair of blades advanced and Shirou teleported away from the final attack.

"On the other hand the Fourth True Magic arose about a hundred thousand years ago when Man looked at the universe and started imagining gods and demons and dreaming up the concepts over which they ruled."

"Thank you for the history lesson," the red-cloaked servant replied with biting sarcasm.

"It's never too late to learn," Shirou said only half sincerely to the man doomed to hell. "On the other hand do you know that the Second reflects the Fifth?" He idly watched as the multiple swords converged on his position. "The Second arose about four and a half billion years ago when the world decided it didn't quite feel like crystalline life and settled on something less fucking difficult to harm." He raised his hand sending a wave of water that instantly froze the multitudes of swords that converged on his position. With a quick hand motion the wall of ice shattered revealing nothing but water and no servant in sight.

Lifting his eyes Shirou scanned the skyline and saw what he was looking for. He barely had any time to savour his find as in the next second he sensed a massive build-up of prana heading towards him. Slowing down time to the point that the world started losing colour he froze the spiral shaped projectile a few feet away from him stopping it dead under a layer of super-condensed ice.

Teleporting behind the red-cloaked guardian he kicked him off the roof of the building and then jumped off himself. "On the other hand the Fifth Magic only arose in the year 3100BC when human civilisation arose and human time and human history started becoming a thing." Crashing into the ground a few seconds before him his adversary only had a few seconds to summon his rose-petaled shield before he was on him crashing fists of ice into his defence.

"The problem was that at this point in time the possibilities exploded into the uncountable numbers stretching the Second True Magic to its limits as the very Dimension started to clutter. Shirou shook his head and his next words were almost reverent. "Almost at the same time as human history arose so did the human consciousness. An anti-primordial force that always acts in mankind's best interests as they believe it," Shirou said looking almost disappointingly at the counter guardian as he watched the last layer of his shield crumble.

"What is the point of this," the servant said his voice indicating his impatience. "There is no possible way I can beat you. Why haven't you finished me off?"

"I wasn't talking to you," Shirou said looking through Emiya. The Fourth Magician walked forward towards the counter-guardian. "Have I ever acted against mankind's best interests?" he asked. "I know you're scared, and you believe this needs to be done, that this is just one universe amongst uncountable millions and its destruction will save many more, I know all of this and yet I'm asking you to trust me. Give me a chance to prove that we can move beyond this terrible status quo."

"It's impossible," thousands of whispering voices came from the throat of the counter guardian.

"I am Enki," Shirou said smiling hopefully. "How many times have I done the impossible?"

The servant was silent for a dreadfully long moment and then his eyes snapped and fixed Shirou with a blank stare. "Enough," the multitude of voices said. "Do not make this a mistake Enki." Shirou watched the body of the servant as innumerable swords skewered its body and it dissolved into prana.

"Thank you Alaya," Shirou said. "I won't let you down."

 **Author Note:Meh**

 **SentinalSlice: Casters ability allows him a tremendous ability to read into a persons actions.**

 **Jubzy650: In order to not use the Black Barrel you have to not be radiating grain which is the thing that Types and humans in the land of steel have in abundance. Narbareck has mystic eyes and can use some sacraments, neither of which are potent enough to prevent her from using the weapon. She's not exactly Ado Edem**


	57. Chapter 57

Shirou stepped back inside the wrecked warehouse in time to see the two halves of Arcueid's servant crumple to the floor and fade into the background prana. Clicking his tongue in regret Shirou mentally berated himself for his tardiness. While convincing Alaya was a necessary action he would be the first to admit that he had let his speech dragged on a bit too long given the present circumstances. Shirou didn't pause in his action and he briefly took note of the fact that Achilles was missing an arm before he teleported behind him speed up his personal time and swinging the golden sword in an arc intent on cleaving his head from his shoulders.

It was a testament to Achille's great skill that even weakened and off guard he could still anticipate the blow and try to defend it. Unfortunately all that changed was that instead of being cleanly decapitated the top part of his head was cut off and he bled blood and brain matter before fading into prana.

Shirou suddenly swivelled twisting his body and summoning a shield of ice to protect him. It wasn't very successful and he felt warm metal slice through flesh and bone cleaving his left arm from his body. Letting the limb form he shot jets of water from his feet catapulting him over the second sword swing that would have most likely lead to his death. Lifting the water in his body the Magician hovered in the air staring into the furious red eyes of Rizo-Waal Strout. The stump of his arm tingled and Shirou felt a myriad of horrific curses seep deep into shoulder. He tapped into his magic and neutralized them in much the same way that he disposed of the curses of the park two years ago and then let himself hover down to the ground.

A metallic arm burst out of his shoulder and, fuelled by the power of his crest, by the time that his feet touched the floor he had returned to having the correct amount of limbs. The Dead Apostle Ancestor attacked with that powerful sword and Shirou found himself having to summon his swords to defend against the attacks from that monster powered up by the power of the full moon. The full power of the hit almost caused his arms to buckle but Shirou allowed it to carry him backwards and he invoked [Nidhoggr] sending the icy dragon at his opponent.

The vampire didn't even slow down as he ran through the icy breath of his creation and cut through the icy dragon in one swift motion leaving two halves that started to feebly reform before the weight of curses contained within the blade turned it to slurry. The destruction of his technique didn't even slow Shirou down and in the next second a blizzard descended around the swordsman, its icy winds prepared to [Cut] and [Shred] and [Freeze] the skin of his opponent.

Shirou didn't expect it to hold him back and therefore he wasn't surprised to see a mass of torn flesh exit the icy inferno reconfiguring itself instantly into the shape of Strout. Shirou instantly began channelling prana and moulding water into a conceptual attack that would be able to do permanent damage to the sturdy Ancestor when he was distracted when an explosion shattered the floor and half the building before an immense discharge of prana lit up the night. The moment of preoccupation almost cost him dearly as Rizo-Waal Strout was on him in an instant lashing out with such power that he would have cleaved even through Shirou's durable body.

The young Magician admired his expert stroke from his spot of safety on the other side of the room. Shirou knew that the explosion could only have meant the destruction of the grail and for it to explode in such a spectacular manner meant that the bounded field that he had expanded over the grail must have been overpowered by brute force. He frowned at that thought; the protections around the grails were designed so that even Arcueid would have an incredibly difficult time breaking destroying them by brute force. Apparently the full moon combined with the boost from the still-incomplete ritual allowed the Eclipse Princess to power through the defences that Shirou had painstakingly set up.

Then she leapt from the hole in the floor and Shirou almost skipped a breath. Her black hair dangled at waist length and eyes that held a hint of malice and mischief assaulted him. Altrouge Brunestud now stood only a few centimetres shorter than him and her fuller more developed form marked her apparent age as only a couple of years older. But her unearthly beauty wasn't the thing that struck him. As soon as she entered the room the earth seemed to grow quiet and with every step she took a titanic amount of prana bled into the surroundings warping the physical world.

"Holy shit, you're pretty strong," Shirou said with a bit of reverence creeping into his voice. All the sources that he had spoken to about the Eclipse Princess seemed to consider her to be a weaker version of Arcueid and while Shirou was almost certain that this was still the truth, that explanation didn't do justice to her power. After all Shirou could count one on hand the number of creatures on this planet that were stronger than Arcueid and still have fingers left over.

"Why thank you," the young woman said, her voice half a shade deeper than her child form. "It's nice to be appreciated. Hey Rizo," she said smiling at her companion. "I think I've got a fan."

"He killed both of out servants," Strout said his muscled form slowly turning to regard the Magician. "He's a teleporter," he continued basically spitting out the term.

For the first time since he had met her, a look of annoyance showed on the raven-haired woman's statuesque face. "Really," she said crossing her arms in a manner that emphasised the fact that her body hadn't only grown in height. "I hate fighting teleporters," she said sounding vaguely sulky. "You think you finally have them in your grasp and then bang," she clapped her hands for emphasis, "then they drop a mountain on you." She looked at Shirou inspecting him from head to foot. "Primy said that there was a teleporter. I just hoped that one of the others would have gotten you."

"I remain dependably alive," Shirou remarked dryly. "I'm in fact the only person in this building who is still living."

"Quite the mouth on you," the Vampire Princess said with a delightful grin. "While I would love to trade barbs I'm afraid I have a pressing appointment. You see there is a grail out there that simply won't destroy itself."

"What makes you think that either of you will ever leave this room," Shirou said his voice falling upon the room like an icy mist.

"Oh," she replied with mild amusement. "You would attack both of us? That seems a little reckless."

Shirou laughed slightly at that. "You could say I'm an old hand at fighting outside my weight class," he said summoning water from inside his body and causing waves to spread out amongst the floor.

"A water-using teleporter," Altrouge said, her eyes briefly widening. "You seem determined to give me flashbacks of Sumire. Unfortunately I really can't leave that grail undestroyed." A ripple surged through his entire being and Shirou flung himself across the room in time to avoid the mammoth canine that obliterated the wall behind him. A moment later he was forced to summon all the water around him to defend himself as the roof of the warehouse collapsed on the occupants.

Stepping out of the wreckage that had only a few moments ago been the roof of the building Shirou got a good look at the new form of Primate Murder as it gently lifted its master out of the rubble. Unlike the original form that was white and looked like a normal, if giant and overly-muscled wolf, this creature had the appearance of a true monster. Humongous jaws created the parody of a grin. Blood dripped from his form and vestigial flesh hung off of blackened bones. However all of this was nothing compared to the horror Shirou felt as he looked deeper than the surface. His face contorted as he saw the powerful and perversity of the many concepts that this thing embodied.

"Did the mean lady hurt you," Altrouge said rubbing his head and Shirou watched in outright amazement as this insult to life nuzzled against her hand. Gritting his teeth Shirou fired up his circuits switching into the state of mind that he often used for battle. There was no way for him to win against all three of them. Even one would have been a handful with the power of the full moon flowing through them, but Shirou was certain that he could at least disrupt and cripple a few before teleporting away and thereby delay the ritual. His sudden awareness saved his life as a clawed hand thrust through the position where his body occupied an instant before he reflexively teleported.

Arriving at an equidistant point from the new threat he gazed into the snarling face of Arcueid. The power she exuded easily dwarfed that of Altrouge and he found himself subconsciously taking a step back. She was obviously not in control of her faculties. Although he had only seen her in this state a few times, the primal fear that it elicited could not be mistaken for anything. Shirou gritted his teeth, it was immediately obvious that Primate Murder had pushed her too far in that fight to the extent that she could no longer distinguish friend from foe.

"My, my," the slightly mocking voice of Altrogue Brunestud broke the silence. "Looks like my younger sister has lost her temper." She turned towards Shirou flashing him a beautiful grin. "Can you imagine if somebody doesn't stop her? There might not even be a world to save from the big bad vampires."

Shirou barely heard her as the moment that this situation popped up he had already using a [Quad Accel]. He let the indistinguishable sounds watched over him as he made plans and immediately discarded them. Contemplating the nature of Arcueid's bloodlust he came to the realisation that he would not be able to forcibly calm her down with his magic when she was this wound up. The only spell that he knew could possibly put her to sleep at this point in time would require a few hours of casting and she might never wake up. He discarded reallocating her as that would just shift the problem somewhere else and he still needed Arcueid at the moment. He considered trying to direct her to his enemy but the chances were too high that they would leave and she would end up rampaging trying to catch her.

Suddenly an idea hit him. Glancing at Altrouge he extended his senses gazing deeply into the ripples. The Dead Apostle Ancestor was like a maelstrom and her very presence disrupted the smooth flowing of the world but in this silent place where time moved at a crawl Shirou was able to pick up a small secondary pulse. Focusing on his target Shirou slowed down time even more and then moved.

When Kiritsugu used the original Emiya crest he could only normally speed himself up by two times without risking damage. His father had even admitted that even at the maximum speed he'd ever used it; he was still slower than the slowest on the other hand naturally moved quite a bit faster than the average human. In addition when Kiritsugu pushed the limits of the crest his body began to break down as it couldn't withstand the pressure exerted on it by the extreme speed he was relatively travelling at. In contrast to Kiritsugu, every part of Shirou's body was far tougher, able to withstand the crushing depths of the ocean and still withstand the blows from Sumire and Arcueid.

In an instant Shirou was upon the trio and only Primate Murder was fast enough to react to this sudden and intense attack. The beast let out a howl that caused his bones to shudder and Shirou could feel his skin start to rot from the corrosive energy that the beast produced in that form. Without slowing down Shirou avoided the massive claws that followed up the roar and then ducked under the sword. Gathering power into his fist he opened his hand causing the area to be buried in an explosion of mist that reduced everybody's vision to absolute zero.

Moving swiftly through the mist he dodged the sweeping strikes from Strout and teleported to avoid the crushing blow from the Beast of Gaia. Appearing in front of Altrouge he lashed out with two lightning fast punches. One of the punches caught the Eclipse princess in the chest and he felt her chest collapse beneath the blow. He paused for a brief instant, reinforcing his body to the maximum and conjuring an omnidirectional shield of ice that brimmed with prana and was made [unbreakable] by his magic. The omnidirectional shield of ice crumpled like glass as an enraged Beast of Gaia lashed out shooting Shirou across the room.

The Magician caught his feet standing upright even as three lacerations extended through his body carving deep into flesh and chipping bone. Catching his breath he watched in anticipation as Arcueid followed his lead advancing into the dispersing mist in an attempt to tear her sister into little pieces. Her attempt at offense was barely more successful than Shirou's as her movements halted briefly and Shirou felt the air condensing around her allowing Primate Murder to bite down on her body and fling her expertly in Shirou's direction. Shirou grimaced and teleported out of the way feeling a slight strain that from all the previous fighting he had done this evening start to impose on his body.

He watched Altrouge wipe blood from her mouth and lick it; blowing him a kiss as she turned away. He didn't have much time to puzzle her actions or respond as he was very aware of the immensely pissed off Arcueid picking herself up from the floor her wounds already healed and only a few tears in her white jacket betraying the fact that she was almost bitten in half by a sixteen metre abomination. Unfortunately the White Princess had quite clearly lost her restraint and Shirou was the only person left in sight.

"Fuck," Shirou said as he teleported onto the roof of a nearby building an instant before he was skewered through by the enraged Ancestor. He barely got a moment to breathe as Arc appeared on the top of the building having made the hundred-metre leap in less than a second. Shirou sighed as he contemplated his options. Speeding up time again and feeling the familiar strain he teleported dozens of times, shifting himself by feet and inches to avoid the hundreds of deadly blows that were arrayed against him. A missed blow from Arcueid hit the floor and the force of that single punch tore through the roof. Shirou rode the debris down trying to land safely on the floor below, but he was unsuccessful as Arcueid used his brief moment of weightlessness to lash out with a punch that he only just blocked with his left hand.

His hands stung like hell and the force of the blow sent him rocketing sideways and through the walls of the next building. Digging his hands into the concrete of the floor, Shirou arrested his momentum before he exited that building as well and took a breath, the oxygen feeling like fire flowing through his damaged body. As much as he wanted to at this moment he couldn't let Arcueid rampage around. While stopping Altrouge from fulfilling her plan was even more important, if left alone Arc would rampage, probably killing thousands of the remaining Fuyuki population and the consequences of that could destroy her.

Unclenching his right hand for the first time in their fight he gazed upon the beautiful blonde filaments that brimmed with power. As a magician Shirou, more than anybody else knew the value that a little sleight of hand could bring. Shirou closed his eyes briefly channelling prana to activate the powers of Nolava II and he felt the pain from his wounds start to abate. He opened his eyes to the sight of Arcueid Brunestud staring at him, but she didn't attack. Her red eyes gazed upon the weaves of hair that he held within his palm. Like Samson from biblical times whose cutting of hair led to his loss of power, so to was Arcueid's power stolen by her sister and kept within these locks just waiting to be returned to her.

Shirou stepped forward holding the hair aloft and Arcueid's red orbs gazed at the hair with a kind of almost religious fervour. The True Ancestor used her power to restrain her bloodlust and the Magician wagered that a sudden increase in power would enable her to come to her senses. The alternative, that she would continue her insanity with even greater power was something that Shirou was even now planning to counter as his magic circuits spun and his wounds healed. The True Ancestor remained motionless until Shirou was almost within touching distance and then she moved, snatching her hair from Shirou's hands. Shirou retreated watching as she inspected the golden strings, her eyes greedily taking in every inch of her treasure.

Then they disappeared changing into something that was far beyond prana and coalescing around the crown of her head. A surge of power rang through the building and Shirou could feel the bloodlust fading to a mere memory. Arcueid laughed; her tone full of satisfaction and looked Shirou in the eyes. The madness was gone and Shirou almost relaxed before the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. There was something about Arcueid's gaze that seemed so unfamiliar to the Magician.

"Who are you?" he questioned taking a defensive position as his wounds mended. The woman just beamed at him, a beautiful and alluring grin that elevated the tension of the room. The being in Arc's body raised her hand and with a single gesture the ceiling above was reduced to a fine dust. Swallowing Shirou chanced a glance up and then froze. Far above him in the skies above a single blood-red moon hung as if defying the natural order of the world.

"Fuck me," the Magician said, his eyes wide as fear coursed through his body.

The woman just smiled wider as bloodlust rolled off in her in waves. And then she lunged.

 **Author Note: The god of wisdom failed his wisdom check.**

 **CrazyLich79: Probably. Thanks for that I'll try correct it when I have time.**

 **YuukiAsuna-Chan: After getting his memories from the time when he was Enki he might be able to do that. Ask me again a couple chapters.**

 **SentinalSlice: Then I wrote it correctly.**

 **DPSS: Anti-divine weapons are really, really rare. Shirou and Emiya were too completely separate people so there would be no dramatic show down. Shirou only sees it as Alaya's way to get his attention.**

 **Hyperomegasonic26: Not really. Alaya's the one opponent that Enki in all his forms would never, ever fight. On thousands of worlds Alaya is a being that stands in the way of humanities extinction and Enki would never try to disrupt that. Alaya basically killed Archer as a freebie to him, basically saying "Okay go ahead and try. I will not oppose you." Enki feels sorry for Archer but not enough to help him out.**

 **Please Read and Review**


	58. Inke vs Brunestud Round 1

Shirou would never claim to be devoid of fear. Unlike others who could stand their ground with confidence against the mightiest of opponents he was always intimately aware of how outclassed he was in each situation. The situation had actually grown worse as he got older and wiser and he looked back with a fond exasperation at his young recklessness, like trying to go head to head with a Dead Apostle Ancestor at the age of ten. Even when he was Enki with all the power that his divine form entailed he trembled at facing the King of the Underwater Ocean, The father of All, Apsu. However if he had decided to back down, to run and hid then the primordial fresh water would not only have killed all his fellow gods but also the humans that he so cared for.

The fear of the latter was magnitudes more powerful than the fear of a mere primordial god and thus Enki descended with all of his determination into the depths of the earth and into legend. The same thoughts repeated through his mind as the god of all vampires charged towards him wearing the body of his friend. While the very thought of facing such a powerful foe filled him with anxiety; the thought of losing Arcueid who he loved filled him with dread.

Twenty-seven magic circuits burst into action creating streams of prana that circled the body. The ocean beneath his skin bubbled and boiled thrumming with mystery. His crest burnt with such power that it felt like his heart was on fire and his mind was filled with all the wonders of Magic.

The air exploded into the form of an ocean as lakes from Shirou's veins manifested into the world. In less than a heartbeat later the entire ocean was [frozen] and at the very same time Shirou thrust the titanic impromptu iceberg down through every floor of the building making sure to hit every load bearing pillar so that the skyscraper collapsed on his foe. Shirou didn't even hover in the air for half a second before teleporting onto a nearby skyscraper as his instincts warned him.

That quick reaction saved his life as he teleported backwards onto the edge of a nearby roof a split-second before a massive pillar of wind manifested extending countless kilometres into the air. When the wind died down he witnessed the fact that the remains of the building, his iceberg and the third Dead Apostle Ancestor were gone. Extending his senses he dodged backwards in time to avoid the strike from below that would have torn him in two.

Taking advantage of his foes momentum he twisted his body and lashed out with a kick catching her in the head to absolutely no effect and his attempt to move to the side ended in a brutal retaliatory kick that sent him flying through the side of the building. Catching his breath as his lungs forcibly expanded he formed ice beneath his feet and rocketed off that patch of airborne ice into the floor below. The roof above him exploded and he looked past the dust and debris firing out javelins of ice with concepts of [piercing] that were avoided or shattered by her descending form. Shirou bent space teleporting away from the spot he was standing in the instant before her axe kick would have shattered his skull and he watched as the floor collapsed.

Without slowing down he darted among the pieces of falling rubble using the debris as cover to launch a sneak attack to her unprotected skull. Unfortunately the imposter possessed all of Arcueid's sensory powers and his hand was caught without even a side look. In the next instant he was sent crushing into the floor and he had to move his head to the side very quickly as her other hand penetrated through the concrete of the floor as if it was made of butter.

Gathering water into his mouth he spat in her eye piercing deep into the vulnerable orb and drawing his first blood of the fight. The retaliation was brutal and Shirou found himself punched through the floor, and all the remaining floors hitting the ground floor and sinking and cratering the lobby of what looked to be like a hotel. Shirou shakily crawled out of the hole, immensely thankful for the fact that his body was very good at avoiding blunt damage.

His opponent gracefully landed down in front of him and Shirou clicked his neck as he felt Nolava II repair some minor skeletal damage. Taking an unsteady step he straightened and stood tall facing his opponent.

"You hit just like Arcueid," he said conversationally. "It almost feels like you dislodged something back there."

"Well it is her body," the being replied with the voice of Shirou's favourite True Ancestor. "You actually got in a pretty good hit as well," she said gesturing to her uninjured eyes. "It was a nice trick, but cheap tricks won't help against a body this strong."

They paused for a moment contemplating the other then Shirou broke the silence. "I'm sorry I have to ask is this body an upgrade or…"

"It's actually weaker I think," the revived Crimson Moon said flexing her muscles. "But I haven't really put it through its paces."

The silence stretched for a bit longer until Shirou brimming with curiosity decided to ask another question that had been intriguing him. "How does it feel?" he started feeling around with the best way to ask the question. "How does it feel like to have a woman's body?"

"This is a womans' body?" she asked inspecting it. "Really?"

"You can't tell," Shirou said incredoulously.

"All you humans look the same to me," she said offhand and then laughed at Shirou's expression. "I'm joking," she said through her chuckles. "The True Ancestors were made based off my body, there's no way I wouldn't recognize her gender."

Shirou didn't laugh and instead he kept his eyes fixed on the woman trying to analyse her stance guard and powers. He had already identified a few new tricks that she used that Arcueid had not and Shirou got the feeling that she had yet to really show him anything yet.

"That's because I haven't really even got started," she said breaking Shirou's internal monologue. "But then again you haven't really gotten serious either. No I can't read your thoughts," she said in response to Shirou's look of suspicion. "You probably have some naive hope of beating me quickly and then going to stop the others from completing that ritual."

Shirou didn't speak and merely matched her movements as she started to circle him, the two of them looking like prowling tigers before they were to fight or mate.

"But there's no way I'm letting you go," she said in a tone that would have sounded seductive coming from Arcueid's mouth in most circumstances but now simply gave Shirou chills. "I got the second Magician pretty well the last time we fought and the fifth Magician is still weak and asleep. Right now you're the biggest threat to my return."

Shirou sighed and then smiled a moment later. "I guess I can't hold back then," he said. "I tend to avoid going all out when I can avoid it. You never know what you may have to fight later," he said and then his grin widened. "But you're worth it Arcueid. Just hold on and let me save you."

xxx

Magic was amazing. That was Shirou's opinion as the foremost expert of Magic in the world, and he would fight Zelretch for that title. It was a power so far beyond humanity that to use it unrestrained was to court calamity and death. Shirou had taken that raw unrestrained power to shape the universe and parcelled it out creating techniques that could be used easily on a moment's notice taking his formidable Magic and using it like formidable magecraft.

Easily the longest and most difficult technique he had ever tried learning was to add concepts to Shirou himself. Not just to give his fist [piercing] or [crushing] for a single attack but to modify himself so that he became more. In theory the Fourth Magic would be perfect for this task. A user of the First Magic could create mountains but a user of the Fourth could create mountains of [strength].

The problem came with adding concepts onto a human being; any tampering almost immediately put a person out of Alaya's purview and that was only the start. The only other example that he had of tampering with body of humans come from either the Dead Apostles or Zouken and they were both repugnant creatures. The first and only time Shirou had ever used the Fourth to alter a person resulted in Satsuki years later he was still figuring out exactly what the hell happened there.

His research eventually concluded with the knowledge that it was possible to alter oneself and not lose the essential parts of him only if he had a strong comprehension of his origin and a powerful origin that would be able to resist the decay. Unwilling to awaken his own origin his research stalled until last night. Shirou's origin was [Enki]. There were very few origins stronger than that.

xxx

The walls of the hotel barely slowed her down as she found herself airborne and out in the streets, nor did the second or third wall or the others. Taking action she controlled the winds and forcibly controlled her momentum angling herself so that she could dig deep into the stone of the Earth to halt her momentum. Standing up on stable legs and feeling her jaw mercifully unbroken, she took a glance around her. While originally they were in a quieter part of the city it looked like Shirou's punch carried her quite a distance.

There were a few onlookers, probably drawn here by the noise of battle. She sneered at that, human stupidity was truly beyond her ability to comprehend. If they had hunkered down then they may have lasted longer. She raised her hand in an unnecessary gesture. She rather enjoyed her new ability to control nature, and when targets come to display themselves so brazenly how could she resist.

"Focus on me," a familiar voice said, and in the same instance an icy mist descended on the battlefield blocking off the sight of the humans and sending them scurrying away from the arctic temperatures.

"Oh," she said turning towards the Magician. Despite looking the exact same as he did previously somehow he seemed to convey the feeling that he was more than before. "You've finally got here," she said. "Took you quite a while."

"Yeah," Shirou said his eyes never leaving her own. "I had to pick up something from the house. Never let anybody tell you that girl's rooms are any less messy than guys."

"Okay," she said not bothering with puzzling out the way that the Magicians head worked. She took a step forward towards the Magician and was intrigued to see that he mirrored her movements. "By the way try not to destroy my stomach too badly. I'm still digesting Nine's cooking," she lied.

Shirou's eyes flickered slightly before his step faltered and his face drained of any expression. A moment's pause was all it took for the Vampire to be on him with a devastating right hook that caused the bones in his face to buckle. Still she didn't have any time to relax as in the next second she was hit by an icy fist that knocked her backwards. Shirou stepped forward his eyes showing intense focus as he lashed out with a pair of icy hands thrusting claws forward in an attempt to rip her to pieces.

Smiling she leapt taking to the air and out of his range letting the wind hold her aloft. A hand gesture and a tornado appeared in her palm and then she threw it at the Magician. Shirou had only about a second before the tornado engulfed him, more than enough time for him to freeze the tornado leaving a spiral staircase that he ascended at speeds that defied human imagination. Crimson Moon scowled as she saw her attack countered so easily and she snapped her fingers causing the ground beneath the icy staircase to buckle and boil engulfing the entire structure in magma. She crossed her arms in satisfaction in her work an instant later she turned to avoid a kick from behind. Twisting she lashed out with a kick that was ducked by the magician and she felt her leg bend the wrong way as Shirou drove his fist into her kneecap.

Stumbling a bit she took a blow to the chin from Shirou followed by a rapid series of punches to the face. Snarling she caught both of his arms and then head butted him. Unfortunately she chose to head butt his forehead and both of them reeled back from the pain.

She recovered momentarily quicker and activated her Marble Phantasm causing the air around him to spontaneously combust. The air in seconds became as hot as the surface of the sun and the atmosphere was engulfed in fire. She watched for a while as the white faded and then instantly created a vacuum snuffing out the remaining flames. Her eyes widened in disbelief as in the middle of the area defying gravity what appeared to be a coffin shaped block of clear ice. The inside of the ice was foggy and she could barely make out a peaceful-looking Shirou encased inside the ice as he hung there with his eyes closed and his arms over his chest. A few breaths later and the ice disappeared cracking and fading into non-existence.

"In case you're wondering," Shirou said opening his eyes. "It's a spell based on my experiences with Avalon and it works by freezing space-time around me. Unfortunately once I set it's duration I can't alter how long it lasts. Fortunately I know that Arcueid deactivates any effect from her Marble Phantasm after thirty seconds."

"I think you forgot that I'm not Arcueid," the god of all vampires said, impressed despite herself at the utility of the spell.

"Believe me I did not," Shirou said. He clapped his hands together and thousands of sharp icy spears rapidly converged on the True Ancestor. Arcueid casually flexed her power and the wind convulsed redirecting and shattering their forms but it was only a distraction. An absolutely massive serpentine dragon formed in the sky. It had a skull of ice with massive jaws and teeth but the rest was made out of a pale liquid and the creature stretched for over a kilometre. The creature bore down on Arcueid and the True Ancestor raised her hands to block it. Her attempt at stopping the dragon didn't work however as the momentum was too great and she was sent rocketing down into the ground creating a massive crater.

In annoyance Crimson Moon used one of her skills summoning a massive pillar of wind that shredding the water construct. Her relief was short lived as from the from the remaining pieces a group of smaller water dragons emerged attacking in an attempt to latch onto soft flesh. Scowling she casually punched the remaining few dozen dragons and then searched the night for Shirou.

She had lost track of him as soon as the giant dragon hit her and it was starting to get slightly concerning. Whenever Shirou backed off in a duel it either meant that he was going to heal or he had something nasty prepared, and considering he looked fine when they last fought meant that Arc was really not looking for whatever he had up his sleeve.

"…" quiet unintelligible words were heard by Arcueid's sharp ears. That voice was Shirou's, she would recognize it anyway. The Magician very seldom used a single word for a spell and those spells denoted his most powerful attacks. She had never heard him cast a sentence and a sudden chill ran through her body at the thought of what spell he could be casting. In a snap she was at his position. He stood with his eyes close chanting out in a foreign tongue and she took a brief portion of a second to try to decipher the eldritch words before giving up and charging him.

She came within a couple of feet of him when her clothes suddenly locked up. Her shoes stuck to the ground, her cape wrapped around her and her gloves forced her to hug herself. A brief sense of annoyance rippled through her head as she came to the realisation that her paranoid friend had booby trapped the suit he had given her. Her outrage didn't last long as the next second Shirou's eyes were open and otherworldly power washed over her.

In an instant the vast energies that her body produced were all plundered, her sharp mind was dulled, her muscles ached with exhaustion and a weight settled on her shoulders causing her to fall backwards onto the ground. It felt like that time that she had been partially restrained by Nrvnqsr Chaos, only far worse. Shirou walked towards her in that way that he did when he was fatigued but was trying to hide it.

"You made me very happy when you called me a Magician Arc," Shirou said. He knelt down onto the ground next to her and took her right hand. "One of the things that every magus is taught is that memories are stored in the soul. Ergo if you can remember me then the soul of Arcueid Brunestud still exists somewhere in there". She wanted to contradict him but her mouth still felt heavy. Even she could feel the spell wearing off as she lay there; she had not yet recovered enough to move. Shirou delicately took off her right glove and she sighed in some relief as the restraining feel of her hand-wear disappeared, for all the good that it would do her now.

Laying her hand down on the ground Shirou put his own hand over it and with his other hand pulled out a black dagger. "Just hold on Arcueid I'll be there in a moment." And then he plunged the dagger down driving it through both of their hands. Arcueid had just enough time for to see script on the blade glow a dazzling blue before the world faded to white.

xxx

Shirou opened his eyes to the sight of magnificent fortress walls that loomed in front of him. Sweeping his eyes along their length he noticed that the one solitary gate to the stronghold stood in front of him, unopened and imposing. Still Shirou had no hope that the gates and defences would be the hardest obstacle to his success. "I guess I'm going to have to rescue a princess from a castle then," the Magician observed with a wry smile as he stepped from the frying pan to the fire.

 **Author Note: Hmm freezing himself in time. Did I just make Shirou !Reverse Esdeath.**

 **ulttoanova: Does Gil hate vampires? Was this an apocrypha thing?**

 **Nofocus: Really good trick I suppose. I suppose substantial power-up could also count as Shirou stopped holding back.**

 **hyperomegasonic26: I really enjoy reading your answers. I suppose I should explain that Zelretch won't show up. I don't believe in introducing new characters so late in the show. (Actually reads the chapter he's written). I don't believe in i** **ntroducing new characters so late in the show if they're on the side of the heroes.**

 **DPSS: I feel this would be the one situation that everybody brings up over a round of drinks decades into the future. The one thing he will never live down.**

 **Please read and review. I'll bring the second half of the fight when i have a moment.**


	59. Chapter 59

The moon had reached its zenith and now drowned the empty streets of Fuyuki in a terrible bloody light. A single solitary figure broke the stillness of the city as she dashed through the quiet roads. Suddenly she halted and whipped her head towards something far off and unseen in the distance. To anybody that was not mystically inclined there would have been no indication of anything out of the ordinary but to those who were gifted with extra sensory powers it felt like the world was ending, being crushed between two extremely powerful creatures. Like two dragons venting their vast powers of each other if anybody else were to enter that calamitous area they would be destroyed, torn apart and shredded in the vast confluence of power between the two familiar beings.

"This is really not good," Satsuki thought to herself as she glanced up at the bloody moon. While she didn't know what the mechanics behind the change were it was obvious as to what the result was. Honestly it tore at her pride but she acknowledged that, despite her strength, if she were to interfere in that fight she would end up very dead. Suddenly Shirou changed and in the next instant Arcueid was halfway across the city. Satsuki blinked and in that fraction of a second Shirou had also crossed the distance. She had no more time to watch as a veil of mist converged on the pair of fighters blocking them off from her senses.

"Not going that way," she muttered to herself. Once again she cursed the fact that she lacked the ridiculous sensory abilities of Shirou or Arcueid possessed. As long as the vampires were not causing calamity then she would not be able to pinpoint their location. Grumbling in annoyance Satsuki resolved to go the nearest of the two revealed grail locations, the one that didn't have an explosion go off in the vicinity of it. Just before she was about to head out to the remaining known lesser grail she was interrupted by a ringing in her pocket. Taking out her phone, hoping that it wasn't another telemarketer she unlocked the screen to see a message received.

 _Fifth grail has fallen. Retreat to house. Final grail is in secret lab. Wait for briefing. Message was sent automatically. Do not reply to this message._

Satsuki wrinkled her brow as she read the message. Shirou had not informed anybody of the location of the grail prior to them defending it. She doubted that anybody else besides her and Nine would even know where Shirou's secret lab was meaning that the others would still not know where the grail was. Wordlessly she teleported into the hallway of the house that she had spent so much time in over the years and headed for the pantry. Following the directions that Shirou had showed her she ducked through the hole and entered the secret lab. She looked around at the various doors that she hadn't explored and the one that she did.

Still knowing Shirou the grail would be behind none of those doors. The Magician had an almost religious disdain towards the concept of fair play. She knew for a fact that he had tried to move the greater grail to the bottom of the ocean when the war had started to go to shit but had been foiled by the confluence of leylines that dotted the temple. Still she took a brief glance around the rooms hoping to see evidence of the existence of the grail. After five minutes she admitted defeat with the knowledge that if she couldn't locate the grail then it would be difficult for the vampires to do so.

Suddenly the wards powered up and Satsuki held her breath. Teleporting up to the front door she summoned the power of her Reality Marble transforming her body into something inhuman. The seconds ticked past and she could feel the bounded field start to lock onto the target powering up to unleash a barrage that would wipe the intruder from the face of the earth. And then slowly, mercifully they powered down. Letting out her breath Satsuki walked towards the door flinging it open and her eyes widened as she took in the sight of the two figures standing in front of the house.

xxx

 _A few minutes ago_

Rin took a deep breath of air that had been extracted from the surrounding water by an intricate use of magecraft and cursed the fact that she had never invested heavily into swimming before. While she was quite fit and had practiced fighting with the priest before; moving underwater was totally different and strained her muscles in different ways.

Thankfully she wasn't in the thick of the fight. Across the room one of the most dangerous creatures in the world fought against overwhelming numbers. The sixteenth Dead Apostle Ancestor lashed out; his body a hybrid of flesh and steel slicing through the water at speeds that rendered him partly invisible. If it wasn't for the ripples that were left in the water by his movements then Rin wouldn't have been able to see him at all.

Opposing him were Saber, Rider and Nine countering his attempts to kill them all with some bargain bin teamwork. Nine was going head on against the Black Wing Lord absorbing blows that would have cut a lesser being to pieces; his body shifting and reforming in a mass of claws, teeth and arms that gave her a slight headache to focus on. Off to the side Gawain was also lashing out with his blade moving in and out of battle in an attempt to flank their enemy and attack from his blind spot. Even then for each blow he landed he received horrific retaliation in the form of claws lashing out and landing gashes on his armour. Rin actually felt a little sorry for that. It was ultimately her mistake that the knight of the sun was forced to fight in these conditions and yet despite his losses he had carried himself valiantly going up against the strongest opponents in order to protect her and doing an admirable job.

The last combatant was Ishtar who also seemed to be doing the least of the three. She stayed out of the fight occasionally landing an arrow against the Black Wing Lord when it looked like he was about to disengage or overextend. But slowly over time her arrows began to deal damage to her opponent and Rin watched as well as she could as the Dead Apostle Ancestor was contained and forced back.

Rin on the other hand was in the annoying position of being able to do nothing. Despite the power contained in her gems and the training she had received as an apprentice of Zelretch she just couldn't perceive or attack fast enough to land a blow against their single opponent. The few times she had tried she observed that her gandr curse behaved slower in water for some reason that eluded her at the moment. The retaliation had been brutal and Gawain retreated to cover her from a barrage of bullets that extended from his hand. Not all of them could be blocked and thus Rin had quickly retreated holding up a shield of magical energy.

The tide of the battle was changed as electricity was discharged into the surrounding water and the Black Wing Lord disengaged. The water rippled with a tremendous amount of prana and shadows arose to cover the world. This stopped abruptly as Gransurg Blackmore was pierced with arrows of light obliterating most of his body. Ishtar had a look of focus on her face as she continued her barrage, her fingers dancing along the bow sending bolt of lights through the clear water. His head regenerated and he was able to doge out of the way of some more of the arrows, only to be sliced deeply by Gawain. Whips of blackness chipped away at his chest causing ropes of blood to decorate the clear water. In a procession akin to a pack of wolves taking down a bear the three of them slowly but steadily chipped away at his defences in a calculated march towards the end of the vampire's undeath. And then everything went to hell.

The only warning that they had was a flickering of the above head lights and a slight tremor and in the next second the roof collapsed exploding inwards forcing tons of rubble downwards on them. Rin raised a shield but she needn't have bothered as Gawain was quickly moving back interposing himself between her and the debris slicing and redirecting the falling rocks. Light coalesced around his blade and the surrounding wreckage was vaporised.

Suddenly all the water that had surrounded them disappeared into mist that faded and Rin stared upwards momentarily entranced by the form of a blood red moon. Quickly coming to her senses Rin turned towards the very real threat in the room only to watch him staring dumbstruck up at the bloody moon.

"He's returned," he said and Rin was disturbed to see that there was wetness from his eyes that wasn't due to the water level. "After all this time. I can't believe it."

"And right now he's fighting for his life," the voice was accompanied by a massive crash as the form of a gigantic furless wolf crashed down onto the floor causing the tiles to shatter beneath it. The wolf turned its head, almost instinctively towards Rin and she felt her heart stop. Her blood went cold and she could feel the air in her lungs leave her. "So this is how it feels to die," her thought sluggishly responded as she gazed upon two purple orbs filled with cruel indifference.

Suddenly air rushed into her lungs and her thoughts sped up again to comprehend that Gawain was now standing in front of her defensively. She gathered all her courage and looked up at the beast. The lupine abomination had lost interest in her and lazily eyed Grasurg Blackmore. On top of its body a raven haired teenage woman sat smiling as she chatted to the Black Wing Lord.

"The best and only solution would be to finish the ritual," she said. "But to do that we need to know the location of the last grail. That's where you come in."

A look of pure hatred crossed Blackmore's face but after a moment it disappeared and he sighed. "Then it seems we have the same purpose," he said. "I've already scouted the location for all the grails a few days ago. The last one is behind some a pretty strong bounded field in Miyama."

"Okay," the raven haired woman said a little too cheerfully.

"You don't know where Miyama is, do you?" Gransurg said flatly.

"It's to the east of the shopping district," she replied with confidence that faltered when the sixteenth Dead Apostle Ancestor said nothing. "No wait I meant to the west of the shopping district. Is it below the shopping district?"

Help me finish off these and I will show you where it is," Gransurg said gesturing towards Rin and the others.

"Are these too much for you," the woman said. "Maybe you've grown too weak after all your years of being unopposed. I hope Crimson Moon won't be disappointed."

"I'm stuck underground so I can't transform," he replied with strained politeness. "The archer prevents me from any attempt to summon my reality marble and I still haven't fully healed from the damage done to me or grown accustomed to these mechanical devices." He then shook his head. "But you're right, the archer is incredibly powerful and I know you recognize the butler."

"Yup," she said. "Mini-chaos, I would have really liked to have Nrvnqsr here in the fight. Even though he was with the old man, I felt like we always got along well." She turned towards Nine who had emerged from the rubble relatively unscathed. "Hey would you like to join our side. Give it a few years and you could become an Ancestor. It's a really cushy job; you can get minions, riches, women and a pretty awesome castle."

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to decline Miss Brunestud," Nine replied sending a shiver down Rin's chest as she realised who she was talking to. "I'm loyal to my Master and I severely doubt he would advocate joining you."

"I can respect that," Altrouge said nodding her head. "Primy please kill them."

Primate murder whirled and in the next second two arrows of light bounced off his hide. Ishtar didn't falter as more and more arrows rained down upon the beast with explosive power that failed to penetrate its skin. A few arrows went in Altrouge's direction but they were easily dodged by the female Ancestor. In the next second Ishtar was forced to dodge as a blast of light that emanated from the creatures mouth tearing through the air and carving trenches into the walls. The flow of energy didn't cease as the beast swivelled his head intent on the destruction of the servant goddess.

Gawain leapt into action summoning the sun around his blade and lashed out at the beast and its rider. The retaliation was precise as Primate Murder abandoned his assault on the goddess and bit down on the beam of light; swallowing the whole thing. After a second it vomited out a wave of light that flowed like lava rushing forward and melting the ground and everything in the path of the knight.

Suddenly Rin found herself lifted up and into the air as strong arms encircled her. Looking back over her shoulder she saw the face of Ishtar looking sternly down at the fight. Whipping her head back she watched as black sludge met the glowing liquid holding it off briefly for Gawain to escape. In the next instant Nine was upon the giant wolf abandoning his human form and lashing out with an assortment of limbs that hacked away at the enemy. Wherever the butler cut toxic looking blood spilled out burning at his mass until he was forced to retreat. With a grin the beast was upon him tearing him apart.

"Get out of here," the sword wielding knight said speaking up to Shirou's servant. "None of us can kill that monster. Get to the house and find Shirou and Arcueid. We'll hold them off."

Without another word Gawain was darting into the fray again to attack the monster. The beast lashed out with a paw as he approached and Gawain dodged to the side darting up the beasts arm. Raising his sword he gathered light and cleaved downwards at the beasts neck. Digging his sword into the muscle as the beast flailed to throw him off he flipped above the wolf gathering light into his sword. Using the force of gravity he cleaved down the full might of Excalibur Galatine.

Rin observed in mute horror as two lifeless halves of Gawain tumbled to the ground. Standing up from her comfortable perch for the first time since she had entered the grail chamber was Altrouge Brunestud. Her hand was still extended and her nails were bloody from having bisected the servant lengthways.

"So many people are picking on my little Primy tonight," she said sighing. "I'm going to have to prepare his favourite food after this. Hear that Primy. It's going to be all you can eat pork cutlets for a week," she said nodding. "Seasoned with human blood, just how you like it."

"Go," said Nine as he reformed looking no the worse for wear. "I can hold them off for a bit but I can't defeat them. Go protect the last grail."

Ishtar nodded as she tightened her grip on the younger magus and leapt into the air and Rin blinked as a ship materialised beneath her. A beam of light came from the mouth of the wolf only to be countered by countless beams of light that arose from Ishtar's vessel that matched and exhausted the solitary beam and then then they were away leaving behind the failed attempt at defence.

"Will he be okay," Rin asked as the ground blurred beneath them.

"No," Ishtar said her eyes focused on the place they were leaving behind. "Nine does not possess offensive power enough to kill them, but he is immensely durable. He should be able to last a few minutes."

Just then a roar split the night and a massive… something arose amongst the blood red night blotting out the moon in darkness.

"Apparently I was wrong," Ishtar said and Rin could have sworn she heard nostalgia in her voice. "Apparently somebody can still surprise me after all this time."

xxx

"You went easy on them," Gransurg said with irritation lacing his voice. "Don't think I didn't notice your pet lurking in the shadows, and I don't mean the dog."

"Hmm," Altrouge said not paying much attention as she contemplated the shape of the massive black dragon spiralling in the sky. Next to her Rizo-Waal Strout materialised and gave the Sixteenth Dead Apostle Ancestor a nasty glare. "Say Gransurg," Altrouge said after a few seconds. "You want to do this ritual to revive Crimson Moon, right."

"Why do you ask stupid questions girl," he said. "Yes I seek to revive our god. As should all of us." He regarded the woman. "If the floor is open for personal questions then may I ask what your desire is?"

Altrouge didn't answer for a while and then she smirked. "Just power, you can't really call yourself a Dead Apostle Ancestor if you don't desire some sort of power. And Gransurg if you keep taking your frustrations out on me I'll show you how much I've already accumulated."

Their confrontation was broken off as the area was bathed in black flames that scorched the chamber turning everything they touched into dust. Altrouge snapped her fingers deflecting the onrushing mana with a gust of wind that rivalled the power of a moderate tornado. Landing down on the ground the thing that the butler had become once again breathed fire only for Primate Murder to match and overpower its flames. Rushing forward his bulk was matched by the full power of her friend and Altrouge leapt off. Holding up a hand to forestall the assistance of Strout she watched as they tore into each other for a moment and then sighed. "Something about this opponent must have struck a chord in Primy," she thought to herself. He was fighting with nowhere near its full power allowing blows to fall on him and blunting attacks of his own.

The creature, apparently unused to its body overextended and Primy took a bite out of its neck, holding back only to avoid decapitating it. Retreating and allowing its neck to heal their opponent took to the skies once again breathing down another wave of flame that she neutralised.

"Primy finish him," Altrouge said after only a moment's hesitation. "We've already spent too long on this fight." Her friend turned towards her gauging her resolve and saw cold steel in her eyes. Letting out the canine equivalent of a sigh he looked up at the shape in the clouds and opened his mouth. He held nothing back as a comet of white extended from his maw launching into the atmosphere and striking the dragon. Altrouge watched rapt as the third most powerful explosion to ever occur on Japanese soil lit up the sky eclipsing the red moon and for a few seconds turning night into day. Altrouge swiped a piece of inky chaos out of the air and watched for a few seconds as it burnt before she deliberately extinguished the flames and slotted it into a pocket in her dress.

"Shall we go get that last grail now," she said more to herself than anybody else in the room.

xxx

"So Nine's fighting alone now," Satsuki said to the Babylonian goddess. "Is there nothing we can do to help him?"

"He's probably already dead. Did you not see that massive flare of light about a minute ago," Ishtar said bluntly. "To not use this time to fortify the house would spit on his sacrifice."

"I was in Shirou's lab," Satsuki defended herself. "Light doesn't exactly reach down there."

"You know where Shirou's lab is," Ishtar said with some surprise. "Did you see the grail?"

Satsuki shook her head. "So what's the plan," she said with some faint hope.

"There is none," Ishtar said walking to the couch and putting her feet up in a way that brought a blush to Satsuki's face. "The defences of this house are at the strongest they can ever be. Without Shirou to supply me with extra mana I cannot use the full measures of my powers against the enemy. You and Rin have both lost your servants. If they manage to get through the wards then we will all die and the grail will be destroyed. There is nothing we can do but to wait now."

"So there is no way for us to do anything," Rin said her voice empty of hope.

"You can try to pray," Ishtar said sardonically. "But take it from me when I say that most gods aren't worth the trouble. At this point we need Shirou or Arcueid to not lose."

As if to betray her words the ground shuddered and a screeching sound like nails on a chalkboard rang throughout the house setting the three of them on edge. To the mystically sensitive the entire house lit up like a bonfire and both Ishtar and Satsuki found themselves reeling from the sheer power of the attack.

"I think they're here," Rin said with only trace amounts of sarcasm. "How long did you say that this barrier would hold out against them?"

"Between thirty seconds and the rest of the night," Ishtar responded casually. "It implements the Fourth Magic in the design, don't ask me how. Basically the only way to get past the barrier would be wishcraft of the type that the Beast of Gaia uses and how long we have depends on how long it would take him to realise…"

The only warning was the sudden death of the alarm and then Ishtar was on both of them, grabbing both Satsuki and Rin and summoning her boat before the world was engulfed in light. After a few seconds the white was replaced with red from the moon and she was able to see the remains of Shirou's house scraped clean as if a god had plucked the building from existence. Turning backwards she saw a terrible flat plain, revealing nothing remained of the many houses shops and lives that dwelled there beforehand.

Ishtar let the boat return to the form of her bow casually stringing an arrow as she did so. Four figures stood before her, three who she might have been able to defeat, one who she could not. "If any of you gods are listening," she said with no hope in her voice. "Now would be a good time to help."

 **Author Note: Still not entirely happy. I seem to be slowing down as the end approaches. If you can't guess what the first and second biggest explosions on Japanese soil were I'm afraid you're not going to get a good history mark.**

 **hyperomegasonic26: Good idea I corrected the title of the chapter.**

 **SentinalSlice: He doesn't need to at this point. His body contains a huge amount of water that he regularly from and generates more adding to clothes would be inefficient. Shirou actually only makes his clothes extra durable. He doesn't add extra runes to his clothes like Bazett or try to apply concepts because over the years he's learnt to do without most of his mystic codes.**

 **DPSS: He actually allowed Satsuki to invade her own soul a few chapters ago so he's done it before if not to that extreme.**

 **: Godhood and immortality would do nothing by themselves. Gods can't exist in the world and immortality doesn't mean being able to endure hits. But strength and power are definitely among the concepts he has imbued himself with.**

 **Please Read and Review. How badly did switching perspectives in this chapter annoy you? I'm trying to build suspense. Is it working?**


	60. Inke vs Brunestud Round 2

"Hmm," Shirou said to himself as he contemplated the massive gate in front of him. While it initially appeared to be steel, the composition was too reflective, too immaculate to be made of an earthen material. He rapped his knuckles on the door contemplating his situation. The situation was annoying to him as Shirou considered himself an expert in Reality Marbles, knowing much more than pretty much anybody else, although he acknowledged there might be a magus who had performed more experiments on them and was in bad need of killing. Theoretically both he and Crimson Moon should have been transported directly into the centre of the Reality Marble, however the knife that he gave Satsuki was never meant to be used in that specific manner and he should probably be grateful that it worked at all.

"The gates to the Millenium Castle Brunestud stood as the ultimate protection for the True Ancestors," he mused to himself. "I wonder if that is the reason I haven't been let in. I'm not a True Ancestor."

He stepped back and threw a kick with all of his power behind it causing the doors to buckle inwards slightly. Shirou frowned slightly at the sight and the lack of information behind it. Currently he was the strongest he had ever been as a human. By conceptually enhancing his body he had attained strength far beyond that even seen during the Age of the Gods. Unfortunately this gate was made using materials with unknown tensile strength that he had never seen before and thus he still had no way to realistically gauge just how hard he could hit.

Shrugging Shirou touched the door pushing the concept of [disintegration] into the structure and watching as it dissolved before his very eyes. Stepping across the threshold he immediately noticed the difference. Previously when he was outside the fortress he took very little notice of his surroundings. The grass was green and the sky was blue in a very generic way but nothing of a supernatural nature screamed to his senses and nothing stirred his sense of danger. As soon as he set foot proper into Castle Brunestud he was rendered speechless by the changes that immediately were swept upon him. The air chilled and filled with a frigid power and the entire area was bathed in red light. Looking up Shirou saw the night sky filled with a looming scarlet moon, many times the size of that on earth.

"If she tries to drop that on me I'm going to be very upset," Shirou said to himself looking away from the ominously glowing orb and forcing down the feel of impending dread that surfaced within him. Spreading his senses through the surrounding moisture in the air his eyes widened and he stepped forward as a hand plunged down in the space that he occupied a second ago.

Twisting his body Shirou lashed out a kick at the creature catching him in the stomach and causing him to slide backwards across the damp grass. The glow of two orbs and the face contorted in madness and fury told Shirou the entire story. It lunged forward at superhuman speed and Shirou stepped forward to meet it. Clawed hands tore at his chest only to find no resistance as Shirou applied the concept of [intangible] that operated in a manner similar to that of his servants. As he walked through the vampire he let his arm linger behind him and in the instant that the majority of his body had passed his attacker he allowed his hand to solidify in the chest cavity of the beast and then pulled out its heart.

"True Ancestor," Shirou began speaking to himself. "No you're a demon lord," he said to the creature that was kneeling on the grass clutching its chest. "I wonder how many of you there are." As he said this he inspected the grounds of the castle trying to scout any more of the crimson orbs amongst the general vermillion miasma.

The beast screamed incoherently but Shirou had not trained with Arcueid for years to be stymied by a cheap knock-off. Blinded by its rage it attempted another lunge but before its brain could tell its muscles to move it was [pierced] through but multiple spears of water. Immediately the water spread throughout the Demon Lords body bypassing the normal magic resistance that is a staple of those creatures with mystery and infiltrating its blood.

Then Shirou clenched his fist and like an angler reeling in his catch he summoned all the blood in the creatures body in the most linear fashion possible leaving the desiccated husk of his foe on the floor. Watching closely as his powers rewound time to restore his body to perfect health Shirou stepped forward and froze the remains in space-time preventing the curse of restoration from working.

"So that's how strong I've gotten," Shirou mused to himself as he stepped over the remains of his first opponent. The courtyard was eerie in its red glow and much of the vegetation was unknown to him, whether from being not native to earth or merely found in a lost time and place he could not tell. Unfortunately Shirou was intimately aware that time was not his ally and hadn't been for a while and thus any diversions to examine the local horticulture were entirely inappropriate.

Seeing no more glowing red eyes for the moment he strode towards the door that lead into the castle proper, raised his leg to kick in the door and then reconsidered and merely slid the unlocked door open. The décor of the castle was both grand and yet simplistic and yet unusual. Large columns of marble-like substance littered the room in an asymmetrical fashion, pictures of strange landscapes decorated the walls and red light shone of velvet carpets. A staircase led to a second story balcony from which two more demon lords stared down at him from their perch leaning on the balcony. Shirou scanned the surrounding areas picking up two more demon lords just outside the room and kept walking while remaining on guard for the inevitable attack.

The attack happened exactly as expected. Halfway through the room he felt a sudden and familiar deadness in the wind and he swiftly vacated the spot before the wind turned against him. Dodging to the left he was momentarily surprised to see the left wall give way as one of the other Demon lords burst through solid stone to try to kill him. He didn't hesitate [freezing] the fallen True Ancestor and plunging a hand through his chest shattering the frozen part. His attack took a hair to long and a claw cut deep through his side but he didn't falter summoning his own blood and firing it like a bullet into the heart of one of the ancestors. Keeping one eye on the [frozen] one who was recovering he swept his hands summoning a wave that pushed back the other attacker.

He didn't get a moment's respite as the air went dry and he instantly summoned a shield of partially distilled water. With expert precision he weaved a web of impurities and following the principles of basic science he watched as the massive lightning bolt ran down the side of his shield discharging harmlessly into the ground.

"We're not playing Pokémon," Shirou said giving a mocking grin even as he summoned clouds of highly acidic mist. "Here's a physics lesson, water's actually perfect insulator."

Unfortunately the collective demon lords did not seem to appreciate his lesson and one charged straight through the mist even as his flesh melted off his bones and his eyes melted out of his sockets. Shirou stepped backwards accelerating time and with his crest and coated his hand in ice decapitating the blinded monster. Feeling movement behind him Shirou turned [intangible] again and watched as the Demon Lord that he originally frozen charged through his body colliding with his current opponent. Taking advantage of the momentary confusion Shirou let loose a powerful [Amessunu Istenis] at the two bodies.

A wave of pure world defying reality was injected into the castle and Shirou watched as the two bodies, as well as the wall behind them and the wall behind that and so forth, were conceptually destroyed due to being unable to handle the power of the primordial abyss.

"Huh," Shirou said momentarily speechless. His shock wore off quickly as he was forced to summon a pillar of ice beneath his feet to dodge the grasping earth that opened up beneath him. Leaping towards the True Ancestor on the second floor he was unsurprised to see a conflagration erupt before him. Summoning ice beneath his feet he changed his direction mid jump manoeuvring around the wave of flame and hitting the ceiling. Pushing off the ceiling he surrounded himself with ice and dropped like a meteorite shattering the balcony and nearly flattening the other Demon Lord.

The ice shattered around him and he flung the remains of his cocoon at the Demon Lord but was unsurprised to find that it missed him. He sucked the water from the room and condensing it spears of an unearthly form of ice. Slowing down time immensely he launched the multitudes of spears and was gratified to see some of them pierce his opponent.

He didn't have much time to go for the kill as in the next moment he was forced to summon ice to protect himself from the claws of a new trio of Ancestors. Another surge of his [dense], [effective], [efficient] prana and the ice grew spikes that branched throughout the room slicing and skewering the Demon Lords. Despite his best efforts he was unable to leverage his Magic to create greater reserves of prana. It was an incredible annoyance to him, made even greater by the fact that he was certain that he could have found a way using every other form of Magic. In the end Shirou had tabled that as a long term project requiring a more esoteric approach. Instead he had applied concepts to his prana allowing him to get far more out of the amount that he used. It was only liberal applications of these concepts that allowed him to get away with all the fighting that he had already done tonight and still continue with at least sixty percent of his reserves left.

Unfortunately that sixty percent would drop very fast if he was forced to fight his way through an entire castle of fallen True Ancestors. He had never seen the inside of Castle Brunestud and he was deeply regretting the fact that he currently had no way of knowing which way to the throne room. Quickly running through his arsenal in his head he quickly came up with another plan. He melted the ice and then he from his body he summoned massive quantities of water and turned it into steam. Almost immediately he could feel wind trying to disperse the mist and he let it, summoning more mist as he did so. As the mist dispersed around the castle he could sense more and more of the True Ancestors.

Shirou didn't lose his focus as the mist was blown away and he summoned another shield of water to easily block more incoming lightning. Turning even while he continued to hold up the shield he raised his left hand slowing his motion and with his trusty Desert Eagle he proceeded to ventilate his skull with a few well timed shots. Vowing to upgrade his gun when he gets the chance he returned it to his holster in time to deal with the fact that the floor was once again rising up to attack him. With a single stomp of his foot he shattered the balcony plummeting everybody into a minor one story drop. Leaping between bits of debris Shirou pulled out the gold swords given to him by Gilgamesh and swung both at the neck of the Demon Lord furthest away.

The vampire raised his hands to block both swords and Shirou took the opportunity to lean forwards and spit a combination of venom and acid into his eye and he watched his opponent grasping at his face as the mixture ate deep into his brain. Whirling on his feet he regarded the other Ancestors. Despite the madness that infected their eyes they seemed to be far more wary of him now that he had slaughtered a few of their compatriots. Holding out his swords Shirou gauged their weight and was satisfied with the amount of water inside of them for the next part of his plan.

"Stall them," he commanded unnecessarily as the water coalesced into the form of the icy armoured dragon that he had favoured using of late. He had no illusions that it would be able to put them down. It took either persistent damage or severe conceptual attacks to bypass their regeneration and while Shirou was capable of both of these things, his dragon wasn't.

Stepping backwards as his dragon engaged the True Ancestors in combat he bent his knees and jumped powering through the air. The ability to manipulate blood had long reached the level whereby he could manipulate his own blood to fly but despite training it was never the most graceful form of flight. Shirou formed giant wings of ice for no practical reason other than the fact that he had always wanted to do so and he was in a different reality from anybody who could call him out on it.

Soaring into the air he tore through the stone roof and flew towards the red moon. Extending both of the golden swords he slammed the hilts together fusing them, marvelling as they changed in shape and power. As soon as his finger touched the string he could feel a tremendous drain in energy. The him of a few years ago would have run his circuits raw even trying to sustain the required output to activate this Noble Phantasm. Even in his current form he could feel his magic circuits ache under the pressure. Turning back he looked down at the castle feeling the many lives that lived within. In the centre like a crocodile in a watering hole lay his target. Shirou smiled tightly as he aimed and then loosed the arrow. While he doubted he would ever be proficient at archery he was adequate enough to hit such a target.

The arrow loosed with impressive speed penetrating the roof and Shirou could almost imagine the look on Crimson Moons face as the solitary arrow dug into the floor beneath. "Still," he thought looking up as the structure that Gilgamesh had so appropriately titled 'The Star of Destruction'. "If that surprised her she's really not going to like what's coming next. A burning golden spear descended from the heavens. A frown crossed his face when the spear suddenly disappeared but the huge magic circle that it was replaced by caught his attention as it spread out covering the entire castle and grounds. The circle appeared to crack and then Shirou let out a whistle of appreciation as he saw what looked to be the contents of a small sea descend on Castle Brunestud. While it was only a pale shadow of the actual great deluge it was still impressive and Shirou watched as the all-consuming wave of water swept aside the walls of Castle Brunestud and ground the Reality Marble of the first Vampire into the mud.

Shirou watched the waters below that stretched as far as the eyes could see. He had very little hope that he had managed to destroy Crimson Moon. In fact he was counting on the fact that she would be relatively okay. Shirou sheathed his, now spent, swords and dropped down and landed on the water transforming it to ice below his feet. Sending minor amounts of his prana down into the ocean he sensed around for her location.

He needn't have bothered though as Crimson Moon's location became very evident shortly. Ripples shattered the calm stillness of the water's surface and the ocean surged disgorging a large cube blackened stone that hovered, uncaring of normal physics, above the surface of the ocean. With only a muted crumbling the stone peeled away to reveal a marble floor that went perfectly with the pale white throne that dominated the room. Slumped over on the throne was Shirou's favourite True Ancestor bound in a multitude of chains and the Magician made a mental note that at least half of the chains had broken, most likely shattered by his attack.

"There are very few times in my life that I've ever felt the fear of death," Arcueid's voice said as Crimson Moon stepped out from behind the throne. "Congratulations, you're now responsible for half of them."

"You're welcome," Shirou said. "I'm glad I can provide you with such an experience."

"You've always been so flippant in the face of danger," the first vampire said. "I've always wondered whether it was suicidal bravery or just a clever façade."

"Why not a bit of both," Shirou said shrugging. While he normally had a strict policy against talking to opponents it seemed that his current one had just enough of Arcueid to bypass his normal stoicism.

"Why do you have dragon wings anyway," she said and Shirou huffed in annoyance while looking at the comatose version of Arcueid.

"They're meant to be angel wings," he replied. "Look," he said pointing at her with his index finger. "There's no way you can win at this point. You must realise this. There is a reason why Arcueid is merely sleeping and you haven't even tried to kill her. You can't survive without her; this soul is about 98 percent Arcueid. The remains of Crimson Moon amount to a few memories and a broken Reality Marble. What I'm saying is that you're not the real Crimson Moon."

A swift dodge to the side wasn't enough to avoid the strike and Shirou felt a chunk of his neck torn out. He tried to stop his jugular vein discharging blood and in the next instant he felt immense pain in his chest due to the arm of a True Ancestor being shoved straight through it. Ripping her arm savagely out of his chest she jumped back and

"I am the real Crimson Moon," she shouted at him furiously. "I was the leader of all those who lived on the moon. I took Gaia's offer and created the True Ancestors. I've fought gods, dragons, heroes and more. I am the one who fought the wielder of the second Magic and I'm the person who is going to revive myself and take this world for my own."

She stood there breathing quickly despite having barely having exerted herself and then suddenly her figure was cut off as scalding water erupted beneath her burning with lava-like heat. The eruption ceased and she stared into the eyes of Shirou; as he hovered above the water, his wings of ice having disappeared and his bleeding having ceased. Then he laughed, with a tone of relief layered in that laugh.

"You really need to learn when to confirm your kills," Shirou said smiling at her. "But I suppose you can't help. After all you're so young."

She lost it at that moment and lunged forward releasing all those subconscious limitations and letting her anger empower her blows. But they didn't connect as at the moment of impact Shirou stepped through her guard and drove both of his fists into the stomach with such power that her organs nearly ruptured. Fighting through the pain she lashed a fist up at his face which he calmly sidestepped and retaliated with a punch that fractured her jaw and caused her head to whip to the side. He didn't pause as he swiped her legs out from underneath her causing her to fall into the water, or she would have if he didn't summon a spike of ice beneath her throat impaling her on it.

She yanked the spike out of her throat just in time to get brutally kicked in the chin, and she watched in almost slow motion as the Magician grabbed her by the face deliberately puncturing her eyes and threw her backwards. It was at this point she lost her mind to rage. She was Crimson Moon; she would not be kicked around like some second-rate streetfighter. Thrusting her hands forward she created the closes thing to a natural nuclear explosion that could have ever occurred on earth. She could feel her own skin flake and blister away as a flash of blinding light followed by a wave of heat and force washed over the area. Her eyes regenerate to the sight of a giant whirlpool where the Magician was standing and she sighed in satisfaction.

"No seriously, you really need to start confirming your kills," Shirou said and she whirled to look at the sight of a Magician who was mostly unharmed, the damage to his clothing being the only evidence that he'd even been in a fight.

"How did you," she said not even being able to finish a sentence.

"A Magician never reveals his tricks," he said with a smug grin. "But if you want a hint," he said, leaning forward conspiringly. "I did it when you took your eyes off me."

She opened her mouth to say something and then closed it again. "I've had enough of you, insulting me, mocking me, claiming I'm not Crimson Moon. I'll show you I'm Crimson Moon," she said extending her arm and pointing a finger at the sky. Shirou idly looked up to see the approaching form of the moon. "Let's see how you stop this. The other could barely stop it and it aged him to near death. Will you be able to do any better Shirou Inke? Do you think you can oppose my power?"

"I don't need to," Shirou said as he extended a finger pointing behind her.

"I'll be taking care of it," a dangerously awake Arcueid Brunestud said as she raised her arm and the moon stopped its advance.

"Wait, how are you awake?" Crimson Moon said as she felt her plans falling apart all around her.

"I simply broke her chains when you weren't looking," Shirou said as the moon retreated. He waved his fingers and the ocean moved accordingly. "You were so focused on me that you forgot to keep an eye on her."

The moon retreated and Arcueid focused on the duo before her. "Hey Shirou," she said. "Who is this?"

"A portion of the leftover thoughts and desires that were left behind by Crimson Moon," Shirou said. "It's also encompasses the part of you that lusts for blood."

"I did notice my head felt a bit clearer," Arcueid said as if thinking aloud. "So what do we do with it?"

"You lie," the fake Crimson Moon yelled above the sounds of the waves. "I am the real Crimson Moon," she said and for the first time in their fight there was a note of hysteria beneath the rage. "I'll kill her and then I'll be the real Crimson Moon. Then I'll own the world and…"

"No," Shirou said and she turned to look at him. Any traces of good humour were gone from his face to be replaced by a look of pity. "No you won't, you can't. You're not alive, you never did exist. You only fooled yourself into believing you did."

"I won't accept that," she yelled and summoned the winds to shred him to the bone. It failed. Then she summoned enough lighting to melt his nerves. It failed. Combustion failed. Gravity failed. She even tried drowning him which unsurprisingly failed. "Why," she said her voice hoarse. "Why, why, why?"

"Because you never had any power of your own. You merely leached off Arcueid's. Once she is awake you go back to being just a part of her dream," he said while walking towards her.

"I don't want that," she said in a soft voice. "I can't endure this," she pleaded.

"There is another option," Shirou said equally quietly, his voice full of melancholy.

"I want that," she said immediately in a brittle tone.

She heard a familiar click behind her, the same one that she had heard many times as she, as Arcueid watched Shirou do weapons maintence and she could almost envision the cold steel behind her head.

"Thank you," she thought and then she thought no more.

xxx

Two people materialised in the darkness of the night. The surroundings that they appeared were ruined but neither of them was surprised to see no police at the scene on a night like this.

"Are you okay Shirou," the woman with long blonde hair said to her compatriot with short red hair.

"I will be," he replied.

"You couldn't have done anything more," she said reassuringly.

"Not with the amount of time that I have," he said and for a moment he looked murderous. "Fuck this war, fuck those vampires, fuck that dragon bitch, fuck everything." He clenched his fists but didn't do anything further. "Arcueid go to my house," he said quickly. "The last grail is there, beneath the pantry. Hurry."

She nodded and threw him one last concerned look before fading into the night. As soon as she left Shirou turned and walked in another direction.

 **Author Note: Yeah this chapter. Please tell me whether I pulled it off or not.**

 **YuukiAsuna-Chan: Hoped this chapter satisfied you then. It's an inherent problem with stories with a lot of characters. I feel I have to switch to remind readers that a single character does not exist in a vacuum.**

 **SentinalSlice: He's actually far more lucky than canon-Shirou or Archer, he just has the fortune to stumble into interesting adventures. Not to mention his actual version of luck is far closer to divine providence. Out-of-universe I just really don't want to deal with the absurdity of the Nasuverse luck rankings.**

 **DPSS: I can confirm no Chaldea showing up. If everything goes right they won't have to correct it. If everything goes wrong, well there would be not 2015.**

 **Please Read and Review.**


	61. Chapter 61

Verde was the largest shopping centre in all of Fuyuki and could truly be called the jewel of Shinto. Built during the construction explosion that took place after the Fuyuki fire, it contained nearly a hundred individual shops including cinema, clothing stores and tea shops. During the week it was often filled with many adults conducting their business and during the weekend children from all ages and walks of life could be seen frequenting their favourite locations.

Now the place was as cheerful as a mausoleum. A few small packs of people gathered in the open area speaking in quiet susurrations that echoed in the relative emptiness of the centre. The area was tense and, despite the spot being relatively well lit, the darkness outside testified to the fact that none of them felt entirely safe. Everybody here had been through pretty much the same experience. Crazed red-eyes filled with evil intent that belonged to prowling humanoids that were only held off by the men of the church. For Kaede Makidera and her two best friends, they had narrowly escaped death at the hands of a mob of those creatures due to the timely intervention of a woman who appeared, killed them all and disappeared.

Before the woman had left she had fixed them with her icy blue eyes and swiftly informed them that the nearby shopping centre was being established as a protected area and their best bet was to take shelter there. Out of their depth in the current situation and well aware of the distance to their homes all three took her advice and sought shelter in Verde wading through the shadows of the night that their imagination filled with multitudes of red eyes . The entrance was guarded by a handful of men wearing religious iconography that identified themselves as exorcists and after a brief inspection to make sure they were not carrying any deadly weaponry nor possessed crimson eyes; they were let into the atrium.

Nothing much had happened since then. Despite the whole centre being open for the refugees the majority chose to huddle near the entrance, eying the darkness that waited outside their sanctuary as if they would be able to do anything against the horde of red eyed monsters. They wouldn't, the exorcists had made it known that no weapons were allowed for their own safety and from what she had seen of them and the other recounts she had overheard the creatures were too fast and strong for a human to contend against.

"There's no reception," her friend Kane said as she walked towards the group having left in order to try phoning her parents.

"Do you think they are okay?" her other friend Yukika said, biting her lip with a look of worry on her face. Kaede felt a twinge of guilt as she realised that they would be home right now if not for their joint membership of the cross-country club that she had initially pressured them to join.

"I'm sure they're great," she said with an exuberance she didn't truly feel. "They will be sitting safely indoors, besides we haven't heard another explosion for a while. Maybe this thing is dying down."

Yukika looked hopeful but Kane had a look of scepticism on her face. "We still know don't actually know anything," she said. "None of the exorcists told us a thing. For all we know we could be stuck in here for days."

Her cold but true words sucked the life out of the happy feeling and the trio retreated once more into silence. Suddenly the sound of voices came from outside, their meaning distorted and warped by the chatter of the room. Suddenly the darkness disgorged a very familiar figure in the shape of Shirou Inke. He was wearing mottled grey clothing that was barely more than rags at this moment, containing tears and holes that revealed more skin than she was strictly comfortable with, and holy crap was he fit for a seventeen year old. She wasn't attracted to him or anything, but those muscles looked like he had stepped out of a manga.

All of this was thought before she took note of the major difference in Shirou. Burning vermillion orbs surveyed the room with a look of mild interest and her mind was dragged backwards into the scene where crimson-eyed monsters in human form attacked with desperate intent to kill.

Suddenly three loud cracks deafened her ears and knocked her out of her thoughts and she refocused to see Shirou open his left hand letting three small objects drop to the ground. He scanned the crowd and pointed towards a man, who she was surprised to see holding up a gun in his direction and she realised with disbelief that Shirou must have caught the bullets straight out of the air.

"Take a nap," she heard over the ringing in her ears and the man slumped over onto the ground.

Out of her depths she turned back to see a white-robed exorcists hurry into the room and start to converse with her classmate.

"I don't care," Shirou said cutting off the man. "There is really no time for this. If you won't help me then I will just rest here and then do it myself."

"What is happening?" she said softly to herself and from what she could see of the crowd she was not alone in wandering.

"The end of the world," Shirou said and she suddenly realised that he was right in front of her. "Maybe, details have yet to be finalised."

He swept his hand across the air and water emerged from it and then spread throughout the building. "We're a bit on the knife's edge," he continued and Kaede watched with some amazement as real life magic happened before her, created by an all too real magician. Carried back were various foodstuffs and the water pureed them before Shirou gulped down the mixed substance.

"Disgusting," he said grimacing to himself and ignoring the frightened looks of the surrounding people. "I need volunteers," he said stamping down his foot. When he lifted it there was a symbol underneath it. It was simple containing nothing but two trees encircled by two streams of water. "To go to these places." Shirou said as he made another gesture and a copy of Fuyuki created entirely out of ice rose was formed from the water he summoned. A flick of his fingers and the ice turned red at five locations.

"You're insane," the voice arose from the general murmurs that started when he phrased his request. "There are those things out on the street. None of us would make it."

"Actually most of them are disposed of," Shirou said offhandedly. "The streets aren't that much worse than the typical Fuyuki nights at this point. Just stay away from the area north of the school and you should be fine."

"Why don't you do it yourself," the man said striding towards him and once again to Kaede's amazement Shirou simply gestured and the man fell unconscious.

"I am agonizingly short on time and you are wasting it," he said. "This task could possibly save the world, now is there anybody who will volunteer."

Nobody answered. The collective refugees stared back at him with traces of uncertainty and fear with silent tongues. A look of agonizing disappointment crossed Shirou's face before it faded behind a blank mask. Still Kaede couldn't blame them; it would require somebody very foolish to go out into the black night at the moment and nobody in the room looked to be a fool.

"Uh," Yukika said softly by her side and Kaede turned her head slightly to look at her. She looked like she was visibly struggling with something. Her mouth opened and closed but no sound came out. Kaede watched in horror as she stepped forward. Somehow her mind clicked at that moment that her friend was going to volunteer despite the complete lack of reason to do so. There was no way she should be out there. Yukika was a good manager of the cross-country team but she was terribly unfit herself. The person who went out there should be fast, fit and, oh who was she kidding.

"Dammit," Kaede said under her breath. "I'll go," she said staring the magician in the face. "Running to those places will be a breeze for the 'Black Panther of Homura'."

Shirou smiled and that smile was enough to cut off her motivating speech. It was a smile that somehow seemed to contain inordinate amounts of pride. It was the smile on a person's face when they saw their hard work being validated. Kaede had to admit, despite herself, Shirou could be very attractive when he smiled.

"Excellent," he said. "Thank you Black Panther," he said with startling sincerity. He reached towards his wrist and she flinched back as a spurt of blood sprayed out before forming into a glob of blood. A vague gesture of his hand and the blood landed on the ground forming a perfect circle with the other blood drawing symbols and iconography within the circle. A coin appeared in Shirou's hand and he tossed it towards the circle and Kaede watched as the coin stopped as soon as it passed over the circle.

"Let me give you something to help you along," he said walking towards her. As soon as he was in arm's length he placed his hand on her head and Kaede felt a wave of… something wash through her making her body feel lighter and her muscles tighter. She felt like her entire life she had been half asleep and for the first time she was wide awake. "I'm counting on you Kaede," he said using her first name.

The next second he was floating in the middle of the circle encased in ice with his eyes closed and despite his continued presence the room drained of its nervous energy.

"Are you really going to go," Kane said speaking up for the first time since Shirou entered. "You were just as scared as the rest of us."

"Shirou's counting on me," Kaede said. "I'm sorry Kane but he said that there wasn't time."

"Good luck," the white robed exorcist said. "We'll guard the rest of these people and the Magician. You go inscribe the runes, may God be with you."

Kaede nodded and she took off faster than she had ever moved before into the darkness of the night.

xxx

If you were to open an encyclopaedia and look up the term 'bad situation', well it wouldn't tell you anything, encyclopaedia's don't work like that, they only look up specific terms. But if they did and you did then you probably wouldn't find this situation listed. After all encyclopaedias don't usually provide specific examples and it was very unlikely that the writer of the encyclopaedia even knew about Primate Murder or Altrouge Brunestud. Rin's thoughts went in very weird places when facing imminent death.

"Do you think we got it," Altrouge said. "I was kind of hoping that we could have destroyed the grail in that blast." She turned towards the enormous wolfish creature. "I think we missed Primy."

She might have said more if the place where she was standing wasn't ripped apart by an explosion that engulfed all four of their opponents. Rin whipped her head around and saw Aoko Aozaki striding from the wreckage of the house with a ticked off look on her face.

"Oh," she thought with some shock. "I forgot she was here."

"What have I missed," the other red-haired Magicia said rubbing her neck. She was dressed in pyjamas and her hair looked understandably messy.

"We were just tracking down a grail," Altrouge said waving away the dust in the air. "You wouldn't happen to have seen one."

"It's below," the sixteenth Dead Apostle Ancestor said brusquely.

"Of course, why wouldn't it be," she said with exasperation. "All the others were. Can't you give me a more exact location?"

"Can't you just feel for the gaps in the Earth using your Marble Phantasm," he replied.

Altrouge opened her mouth as if to speak and then shut it again. After a second she closed her eyes and then opened them. "Shut up," she said annoyed.

While this was going on Aoko was stretching out her muscles and eying up her enemies. She glanced at the three of them. "Do we have any reinforcements," she whispered. "Do they?"

"Shirou and Arcueid," Ishtar replied back just as quietly. "I don't know."

"Then we must stall," she said as if it was obvious and perhaps it was because both Satsuki and Ishtar nodded back immediately. A slight whirring started up and Rin watched with some indignation as the three stepped forward, standing between her and their foes. But they didn't move to attack as the three of them watched the vampires and the hound silently.

"Found it," Altrouge said with joy in her voice, sounding almost childish as she walked towards the ruins of the shed. A tap of her foot and the ground opened up to reveal a box of wood that seemed to be well made but noticeably rotting. "Do you think it could be in here," she said. "Seems a bit small for these grails." She tore open the lid of the box and Satsuki held up a hand to forestall any attack. Reaching into the box she pulled out a lot of dry brown mouldy vegetation that seemed to have rotted underground.

"Wow, that was disappointing," Altrouge said to herself as she tossed the stuff. "I wonder what that was." She shook her head. "Primy blow up the ground."

The beast opened his mouth, white light coalescing between his jaws and then the three in front of Rin moved. In an instant the beast had was kicked in the side by Satsuki and had multiple arrows imbedded in its face by Ishtar. It shrugged off those blows and fired off a beam of energy downwards only for that energy to disappear as Aoko appeared in front of him.

Rizo-Waal Strout unsheathed his blade and moved angling to stab the Magician only for her to disappear and launch a kick at his head. Turning he swung his sword to bisect the airborne Magician and Rin seized the moment to drain half a dozen gems of their and light him on fire. Turning around he glared at Rin gulped as the young magus realized that she had a very angry, very powerful Dead Apostle Ancestor out for her blood. But her discomfort waned as in the next second his body disappeared, ripped apart by the force from multiple explosions.

Rin suddenly had to dodge to the side as a badly wounded Satsuki flew backwards through the space that she had occupied a moment before. Her arm was shaved down to a stump and the wounds that she had incurred would have spelt certain death for anybody weaker but in the next moment she was up, her body already regenerating the wounds.

"Keep your head down," she said to Rin as she dived back into the fight with the massive wolf. But Rin refused to do so with the stakes so high. While she was strong for a magus her real strength lay in the gems that she had so painstakingly infused her prana into during the long years in which she was a magus. Using them she might be able to some damage to one of her opponents or even distract them so that one of her allies could kill them. Her eyes roamed the battlefield tracking the possible targets. Aoko was fighting Black Knight Strout but none of the damage she inflicted lasted more than a second before he regenerated.

Ishtar and Satsuki were fighting against Primate Murder moving at such speed that it strained her eyes to even keep up with it, and, well they weren't exactly winning but they weren't dead yet. That was pretty good for fighting the first Dead Apostle Ancestor. Better than most people could ever claim. Ishtar was immensely fast and agile and her lithe body avoided the many attacks of the wolf by a hairs-breadth and she was constantly retaliating, firing arrows into his blood, soaked and oozing skin. Satsuki on the other hand, well Rin was honestly surprised at how tough she was. Many times had the beast connected with her and then Ishtar would distract it and then Satsuki would be back fully recovered.

Tearing her eyes away from that fight she focused on the third Dead Apostle Ancestor, the Black Wing Lord. As soon as she laid eyes upon him his gaze snapped to meet with her own before he looked away in disinterest. Rin tore her gaze away to look for the last opponent, only to feel chills run down her back as she felt an arm drape over her shoulder.

"I don't suppose you want to get into one of these contests of strength," the smooth voice of Altrouge Brunestud said. Rin said nothing as her life flashed before her eyes and she felt cold sweat form on the back of her neck. She had never felt such sheer terror as when this monster had so easily invaded her personal space. She had no illusions that the delicate looking arm that was so friendlily around her shoulder could have just as easily broken her neck. "I'll take that as a no them," she said cheerfully. "Gransurg is also staying out of the fights," she moved her head closer until her lips were inches from her ear. "Between you and me I think he's scared that if he gets too close to the fights one of my friends will 'accidentally' chop him up."

All of the people fighting had noticed her precarious position but none were actually in a position to do anything about it. Aoko cast a worried look before resuming her fight not being in a position to do much.

"Oh wow, you're pretty tense," Rin heard before she felt strong hands start to massage her shoulders. She involuntarily winced as she felt knots that had accumulated due to the stress of the last few days begin to soften and she had to force herself not to relax completely as one of the most dangerous creatures in the world gave her a back massage. "Have you ever thought about becoming a vampire," Altrouge said taking first place for the most inappropriate sales pitch in the world as their collective allies battled just metres away. "You don't even need dental your teeth get so good," she continued. "And you get immortality, don't forget the immortality. You're pretty attractive. You could keep your looks for a few hundred years. How does that sound?"

Rin opened her mouth trying to think of the correct words that she could use and not get killed. "I appreciate the offer," she said. "It's a pretty good offer…" she said deliberately slowing down the sentences.

"Please, just think about it," Altrouge said with a smile as she turned Rin around to face her. "I'm sorry but right now I'm going to have to put our conversation on hold. I sensed a powerful object far below the earth, hidden beneath a cavern. I've just finally managed to get it to move," she said and Rin saw the ground beneath her bubbled and bulged. Suddenly Satsuki appeared from thin air right in the blind spot of Altrouge and Rin felt a sense of hope emerge.

That hope was taken away the very next second as Altrouge casually twisted her body and lashed out with a punch that sent Satsuki spinning into the hard earth where she lay still.

"Really?" Altrouge said. "I have fought against Sumire before I'm not going to lose against some bargain basement rendition of her tricks. She stuck out her hands and Rin viewed in mixed amazement and horror as something burst forth from the ground. A wave of prana exploded as the object was disgorged in such intensity that she was nearly blinded and when she opened her eyes it was to the sight sphere five metres in diameter made entirely of crystals.

"Damn," Altrouge said and Rin could detect annoyance as well as faint amusement in her tone. "It really is like dealing with Sumire."

 **Author Note: Difficult chapter. Can anybody guess what the rotted brown vegetation was. If you can then you should use that brain to remember more important things.**

 **SentinalSlice: Shirou and Zelretch would really not get along. The story would probably start in a bar and end with them banned from Gensokyo or something.**

 **hyperomegasonic26: The two options she had was to become part of Arcueid's psche again. A collection of memories aware that it is only a ghost of the original Crimson Moon or to die. She chose the latter. Although Shirou might have given her the latter regardless.**

 **YuukiAsuna-Chan: If he had more time he might have been able to track down Touko to transfer her into a puppet body or even made one himself.**

 **LoneWriter091: It's beneath his secret lab which is beneath the pantry. That's because only he and Nine ever go into the pantry.**

 **KnightmareNeko: That would be far too much crack for me to handle.**


	62. Chapter 62

The first thing she ever experienced was the red copper tasting liquid being poured into her mouth. Granted at the age she was she had very little idea what copper tasted like. Still she would never forget the feeling of that first taste, of power rushing through her veins, of her mind waking up from a fuzzy dream. The drug that would keep her alive and sane flowed into her and from that day her mind grew at a prodigious rate. Her world expanded from a population of one and soon she grew to know the face of her mother and father. Her father was a tall, blonde, distinguished looking man with a sharp chin and eyes that only softened when he looked at her mother. Her mother had raven hair and a full figure and soft eyes. Or perhaps that only happened when she looked at her. Both had eyes of purest crimson that they used to watch over her as she grew.

Living together with them and the serving staff that worked in the castle, Altrouge passed her first ten years living in relative comfort. Unfortunately this state of affairs came to an abrupt end when she walked into her father's room one day to see the lifeless body of her mother at his feet. Looking back nowadays with her current experience and insight she could easily see the signs. Her father had been looking tired, his eyes had stopped softening and he had spent long periods of time away from her and her mother. Still little Altrouge wasn't thinking anything of the sort. In fact while a lot of the events of that day were blurred she was pretty sure that the only thing on her mind was running away from the rampaging berserker that her formerly loving father had become. Dozens of servants with burning crimson eyes interposed themselves between her father and herself, trying in vain to hold him off but he cut through them with barely any pause. And yet the girl could only run away as the retainers that she had grown up with, who were precious to her, were cut into ribbons.

She faced him in the throne room and as he stepped over the dead bodies of his former subordinates, amidst the pit of despair that she found herself in, she learnt for the first time how to command the powers of Earth, a spectacular feat that only one dead apostle has achieved since. While the battle between the two of them felt like it went on for hours, in hindsight it was probably over in less than a minute. She still remembered the look on his face as the wind tore him to nothingness at her command.

She felt no relief however, only an emptiness as she sat leaning against her father's throne for an eternity of dark thoughts. She cried, tried to deny reality and contemplated finishing off her father's work herself multiple times, but something always kept her from succumbing to those dark thoughts.

A movement from the pile of corpses drew her eye and she felt her shattered heart start to beat again at the thought that somebody had survived. Diving into the pile of body parts she grasped the twitching arm and tried to pull its owner from out of the corpse pile. The arm came off in her arms and she panicked briefly before she dove into the pile of bodies throwing the dead left and right in an attempt to uncover the living.

Her attempts were successful and from the pile of meat, she dragged the still living man into the fresh air. His skin was uncharacteristically dark and it took Altrouge a scarce few moments to remember his name.

"Mr. Rizo," she said trying to elicit some response from the weakly twitching man. "Mr. Rizo are you okay?"

She still remembered those foolish words and the absurdity of her inquiring about his wellbeing while kneeling next to his severed arm and broken body. His wounds were not any lesser in scope then the others, in fact they might have been greater, but his sheer will to live kept him out of death's door even as so many had passed on. In the end Altrouge had poured out her own blood into his mouth saving his life.

The recovery was almost immediate. In under a minute the man called Rizo-Waal Strout was once again able to open his eyes. His response when he woke up had shocked her fourteen year old heart. Tearfully with a demeanour that belied his rough looks, he wept and begged for her forgiveness. That simple action set her off and soon the pair were both weeping with an absolute loss of dignity. That's when she spoke the words that changed her life.

"Mr. Rizo," she blubbered inelegantly. "Mr. Rizo I forgive you; just be my friend and I'll forgive you. There's nobody left if you go to… Mr. Rizo."

She was cut off at that point as she was drawn into a one-armed hug by the man that would become one of her two knights in the future.

"I'll won't," he said, his voice hoarse. "I'll never leave you."

The two of them mourned for long hours before they regained the will to move. As if in by one mind they took all the items of value they could carry from the castle, buried the bodies of the people that they lived with and then set the ancient structure on fire.

"What should we do now," Rizo said his now reattached arm holding a large black sword that he had retrieved from her father's armoury. The weapon was imbued with countless curses that made Altrouge very glad that her father didn't wield it when fighting against it. Still Rizo was able to expertly control the blade despite the strong feelings of hate it gave off. Yet even with his power, age and experience and he still deferred to her decisions.

She didn't answer immediately, instead looking into the flames that ravaged the place that she had spent the first fourteen years of her life. "I don't know," she said averting her eyes from the scene of destruction. "But I just can't let this… No," she shook her head. "I will never let this happen again. As long as I live I won't let people I care about die."

xxx

That was an easy task at first considering her circle of friends had shrunk to a size of two and her companion Rizo was very strong. With her command over the Earth and Rizo's command over his sword the pair fought against many beasts, vampires and humans as they travelled the world. In fact this state of affairs continued until the pair met a pirate by the name of Fina. Rizo managed to beat him in a contest of drinking and upon sobering up he had gladly joined them drinking her blood and becoming her friend. The three travelled around a little further before they settled down in the Castle that she managed to summon. And for the first time for a long time she was happy.

"Delicious," she said wiping the red liquid from her mouth as she reclined on her throne. "Thanks Rita," she said waving at one of the crimson eyed maids that dotted the place. The maids had all been taken from the streets and offered immortality and in return they became her trusted servants.

"It was my pleasure my lady," she said bowing her head before leaving the room.

That was pretty much how a lot of life went back then. However that day was soon to prove to be very different.

"Altrouge," the white haired pirate captain said stepping into the room. He looked quite dashing in his colourful high-class clothes and for a while she had harboured a crush on the man. He had quickly dispelled any possibly of further entanglement when he had informed her that she lacked certain attributes that he looked for in a partner, certain male attributes. Still she was fond of him and he had proved to be a most reliable subordinate. Therefore it was distressing to see him in an anxious state.

"What happened," she said scrambling to stand up from the throne.

"Well," he said taking a deep breath. "You know that city that we've been taking blood from for a while. It's not there anymore."

A beat went by, then… "What," she exclaimed. "What happened?"

"Wiped out to the man I'm afraid," he said. "Not a soul survived. We'll have to look for a new source of blood soon."

"Yes, but how," she said shocked. "There were thousands of people. Was it a volcano, a plague, a phantasmal beast?"

"The last one I'm afraid," he said sympathetically. "Whatever that thing was, trampled over the population in less than an hour. They didn't stand a chance."

She sagged back into the chair and then leapt out of it. "Let's go after it," she yelled pointing her finger to the door.

"Have you been drinking," Fina replied to her, his voice disbelieving. "That thing flattened a city like it was nothing. Altrouge I know you're not the kind of person to risk our lives on an impossible venture. What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking that this creature could have just as easily torn through my castle and killed all of you if that's the case," she said seriously. "If I feel it is out of our league then I will retreat and hide, but I need to know what this is."

Such simple words didn't persuade them, but she didn't give up and after a couple hours of relentless badgering, both of her best friends left the castle with her to track down the creature that had wiped out the nearby city. Honestly he wasn't that hard to track down. Massive paw prints littered his path of travel and his very presence was written in the Earth as he went passed. As they travelled the miles her companions became more and more nervous, but their footsteps didn't waver even as they crested the hill and came across a huge phantasmal beast in the shape of a wolf.

Both Rizo and Fina stepped back warily but she pressed forward. In that second she had managed to catch a glimpse of the wolf's eyes and a thought had popped into her head.

"He looks lonely," she said walking slowly forward. "I'm going to make him my friend."

xxx

She still looked back on that day with a smile as she thought of how the pair had metaphorically exploded in a desperate attempt to stop her, but she had persisted. It had taken many years of food and talking and friendship moments like the kind you would see on a montage on a Hollywood movie but in the end he had succumbed to her charisma and become her friend. Over the next few hundred years the four of them had basically moved as a unit and amazingly each individual one of them managed to obtain the title of Dead Apostle Ancestor with Altrouge herself obtaining the designation of Brunestud due to her summoning of the Millennium Castle, a family name which she gladly used in the place of her old one from then on. However right now she was receiving news about another Brunestud that caused her veins to burn with anger.

"So what you're saying," she said, her voice livid. "Is that Arcueid Brunestud, the supposed princess of the True Ancestors, snapped and murdered every other True Ancestor."

"Yes Milady," the messenger managed to squeak out.

"You can relax," she said to the messenger. "I'm not angry at you. I can give you a massage if you want. I'm pretty good at those."

"No need Milady," he said. "I'll just retire if that's all."

As he left Rizo stepped forward from his place relaxing on the side of the room. "What do you want to do," he said, as direct as ever.

She tapped her fingers angrily on the arm of her throne. "I don't know," she said throwing her hands up. "I'm tempted to just rip the last Demon Lord from the world." She sighed and slouched in her chair. "But both Blackmore and Solomon have given her their support. If I tried I might not win even with Primy's help. No," she said. "I want to fight the one who stole her power."

"What would that achieve," Fina said examining his drawn cutlass. "That guy is going to be sitting on a whole lot of power right now."

"And if I can beat him, then I can drain him of that power."

"Nope," Rizo said. "Please give the real reason."

"Ughh," she replied. "He's stole the power of that damn True Ancestor. If I can beat him then it will be as if I can beat a rampaging True Ancestor."

"Like your father," Rizo said and Altrouge remembered cursing his insight.

"Yes like my damn father," she said through gritted teeth. "You can come and watch but I'm going to take him down with my power."

Rizo looked like he was going to say more but he was interrupted by Fina holding up his hand. "We will gladly watch your moment of triumph," he said with a smile that made Altrouge regret that his interests didn't lie towards her gender.

"Hmph, that's okay then," she said standing up. "Let's go."

xxx

The fight didn't go well, Altrouge contemplated as she knelt in the dirt. She had been confident that her own strength could defeat the younger magus using the borrowed strength of the other Brunestud.

She was completely and utterly wrong.

From the first exchange of blows she felt like she was fighting a natural disaster. She dealt over twenty fatal wounds from which he instantly recovered or ignored and his magic was powerful enough to singe the flesh from her bones forcing her to use regenerate swiftly. It took her less than a minute to realise the overwhelming difference between them and four further minutes to accept it. Eventually Rizo and Fina were forced to jump in to prevent her death, but the mad magus just escalated his own strength to deal with them. Just as it looked like all three of them would perish in this place; Primate Murder stepped in and tore him to shreds until he was forced to flee in a much diminished state.

"I lost," she said feeling immense gratitude towards her friends that was overshadowed by a colossal amount of fear. Blood flowed from her hands as her nails broke the skin. Both Rizo and Fina nearly died in front of her. Drops of water hit the earth as she wept at the thought of living the rest of her life without the pair.

Suddenly she felt a different wetness on her face and she opened her eyes to see a metre tall version of Primy licking up the tears.

"Altrouge," Fina said stepping forward and placing his hand upon her shoulder. "We're all okay; all of us are alive and well."

"I'm sorry," she said. "Because of me you almost died."

"I can think of no better way of dying, then that so you could live," Rizo said brushing off the blood and dirt from his clothes.

"You can't say that," she replied with a sudden burst of anger. "If you two die then I will also pass away."

"Then we just have to make sure that none of us die," Fina said playing the peacemaker. "Although perhaps we should avoid the other Brunestud for that sake."

"Okay," she said standing up from the ground and brushing off dirt from her ripped and torn dress. "I might hate her, but I like living more. I'll leave her alone for now."

In hindsight that promise was poorly kept considering that in less than a century she fought Arcueid and stole her hair. Oh well, it worked out in the end.

xxx

The bloody corpses on the floor spoke to her utter failure as a ruler. Hatred swelled in her chest and the air went berserk in an attempt to crush the offending woman into paste but with a smile she turned the wind into a sea breeze and the water level rose again. She had blonde hair and blue eyes with a winning smile that hid the murderous attempt that emitted from every pore in her body. Curses in their thousands bathed the area she stood a moment before, poured out from Rizo's sword, but she was gone disappearing from space and reappearing behind Rizo delivering a kick that sent him into the wall.

"You know I'm surprised you haven't asked me why I'm doing this," Sumire the Water Demon said. "I've walked into your castle and killed almost everybody and you don't seem to even care why."

"You've murdered my friends," she replied back trying to convey the hate she felt by tone alone. "I don't need to know the reasons of a dead woman."

Rizo attacked again but the water that was flooding the castle weakened both of them,evoking tangible despair, and Sumire was able to fend off his attacks.

"You killed my apprentice," Sumire said. "No don't bother to think back, I'm sure you've killed a lot of people."

"I'm about to kill one more," she replied. She didn't even bother trawling her memory of people she killed, every fibre of her being ached to destroy this bitch in front of her. Not since her own father had she ever felt this kind of hatred. "You will soon follow your apprentice into the afterworld."

"You will soon follow your servants into the Root," Sumire rebutted and the water level increased again, the feeling of loss and failure contained in the water becoming more intense.

In the end neither of their threats came to pass. Rizo and Altrouge were able to fend her off until Fina and Primate Murder arrived and forced her to teleport away, leaving them to enjoy their hollow victory. The four of them spent a day digging out graves for the fallen and with every one dug Altrouge felt her heart shatter in a way that she hadn't felt for centuries

"From this day on my only friends will be the strong," she said to the remaining three members of her family. "I can no longer concern myself… with insects that die so easily."

xxx

"Fina-Blood Svelten has not responded to any of your messages Lady Altrouge," the vampire said, deliberately not meeting her eyes.

Altrouge nodded with no expression on her face and dismissed the servant. Sighing internally at the loss of the friendly relationship that she used to enjoy, she perked up as she felt a familiar presence at the door.

"Rizo," she said joyfully. "I haven't seen you in a while. How's life treating you?"

"Pretty good," he admitted. "Have you heard from Svelten?"

"I literally just got a message that he's not responding," Altrouge said with some slight worry creeping into her voice. "Why are you concerned, he often goes off doing his own thing?"

"I'm concerned because Sumire has been spotted in the area that he went to," Rizo said causing a cold shiver to run down Altrouge's spine.

"She hasn't done anything for years though," she said trying to ease both of their fears. "They might clash but the Water Demon isn't the type to go out of her way to finish him off."

"You're right," Rizo said after a while. "Sorry for unnecessarily worrying you. I'm sure he will be fine."

"We'll just have to be ready to welcome him back," she said clapping her hands. "I'll be sure to buy plenty of booze for when he returns."

xxx

"I killed Fina-Blood Svelten," the hideous sentence spoke by the blonde Dead Apostle Ancestor resonated in her head once again causing unbearable agony.

"I killed Fina-Blood Svelten," Altrouge cried and cried until she had no tears left to cry and then she tore her own body apart trying to lessen the pain in her heart.

"I killed Fina-Blood Svelten," Altrouge plotted revenge, but how could she take revenge on somebody who lives at the bottom of the ocean.

"In five years' time I will use the holy grail to complete the Aylesbury Ritual, and bring us all closer to the ideal that is Crimson Moon. However in order to do that I need to win the Holy Grail war. Are there any volunteers who wish to participate with me?"

Altrouge put up her hand.

xxx

"I'm not happy about this," Rizo said to her as she sat in the airplane seat holding Primate Murder in her arms. "I think that if we do this then we're playing right into her arms."

"I know," Altrouge said stroking her canine companion with a smile on her face. "But I cannot not kill her for this. Besides if we can complete the ritual then we could be strong enough so that nobody could ever hurt us. Wouldn't that be great?"

Rizo sighed and Altrouge could see him wanting to argue against this, but he couldn't. He and Fina were as close as brothers and Altrouge wasn't mourning alone when they got the news. Beneath his stoic demeanour his heart burned for vengeance just as hot as hers did.

"Just stay safe," he said. "Only the three of us are left, and I've can't talk with Primate Murder like you can."

xxx

Sumire was dead, all but one of those fake grails had been destroyed and all three of them were alive. She even took some vindictive pleasure in the fact that the Demon Lord was probably going to kill her own friend. Hopefully she would then have the decency to taker her own life.

Despite her eternal hatred of the water vampire she had to admit that she did good work with the ritual. It was incomplete and unfinished and yet she still felt her power swell. She felt giddy as she inched towards the strange crystalline orb. The culmination of her work was so close at hand. She permitted herself a small smile at the thought of how proud Fina would be to see her accomplish this.

Suddenly the hairs on her neck stood on end. Her hand which was reaching towards the orb was grasped by a set of pale slender fingers and with hate and fear in equal measures, she found herself staring into the eyes of her sister Arcrueid Brunestud.

 **Author Note: I'm sorry it took so long for this chapter to come out and when it did it was basically filler. I was working on Climbing the Waterfall and let the weeks pass me by far too fast.**

 **DPSS: I'm aware this may sound too overly defensive, but screw it. This chapter was planned before. This is not a half-assed attempt to humanize the villain. It's full-assed at least.**

 **Please read and review. Please don't yell at me to get back to the plot. I'll be back next chapter**


	63. Chapter 63

Altrouge smiled and Arcueid had less than a second to react before the claws on her other hand sliced through her throat. Still that was plenty of time for the empowered True Ancestor and she let go of the Eclipse Princess' arm swivelled her body to dodge the incoming attack and kicked her roughly in the stomach causing to go skidding back half a dozen metres. The two stared at each other and the air thrummed with tension between the pair.

"I like what you've done with your hair," Altrouge said with a complete lack of sincerity in her voice. "It was that teleporter wasn't it. Damn."

"For the first time in my life, I'm using my full power," Arcueid said every word falling like a guillotine on the remnants of Altrouge's life. "I'm going to kill you now."

Apparently the words were enough warning as the ninth of the Dead Apostle Ancestor instantly dodged to the left avoiding the incoming punch. A loud crack signified the sound barrier shattering and the surrounding wind speed reached hundreds of knots instantly causing the remaining debris to be blown away.

Altrouge ducked to the floor and lashed out with a kick that connected onto her ankle and Arcueid stumbled minutely before she lashed out with a kick that punted her sister across the ruins of the house. Scrambling to her feet Altrouge used her Noble Phantasm to lift the earth under the True Ancestor causing Arcueid to fly over her by a few metres. However Arcueid didn't slow down as she twisted her body mid-air and launched herself at the back of her enemy.

She never made it, as partway through her leap a tremendously hard object impacted on her side and she flew off to the side tumbling into the dirt. Swivelling to look at the missile, she saw the image of Satsuki covered in a blackish carapace with cracks along the running through its whole length. Apparently it was strong enough to take at least one hit from the Beast of Gaia.

"Hey Gransurg," Altrouge said and her voice carried over clearly over the sounds of Aoko's and Strout's continuing fight. Ishtar had paused in her fight, keeping her guard up against the lupine monstrosity and Rin was standing very still trying not to draw attention to her person.

"While completing the Aylesbury is my goal, you're delusional if you think that I will stand against the Golden Princess, especially to save your life," Gransurg said, his polite tone conveying hateful words.

"Actually I'm cursed with reasonable expectations," Altrouge said calmly. Without warning the world flashed with light and a simultaneous resounding crack of thunder announced the presence of a lightning strike. The scorched ground surrounding the Black Wing Lord indicated the exact location of the strike and the surrounding crowd watched as his charred and tattered clothes revealed metallic limbs that spasmed uncontrollably.

"Sorry Bird Vader," Altrouge said, not sounding sorry in the least. "It's the end of the line for you. Primy enjoy your dinner."

The Beast of Gaia seemed happy to oblige, disregarding the trained bow of Ishtar he focused on the sixteenth Dead Apostle Ancestor. It was a pitiful sight as the formerly formidable Ancestor struggled to stand, and then struggled to speak and then just struggled. The fury in his eyes faded into resignation and his eyes closed a split second before the jaws of the first Dead Apostle Ancestor made sure he would never open them again.

"And now, young Blackmore… you will die," Altrouge said staring at the spot where her former associate stood a few moments ago.

"So was he meant to be Anakin or Luke," Satsuki said standing up from her position on top of Arcueid. "You're really butchering these quotes; this is exactly what dealing with an evil Shirou would be like."

"You're stalling for time," Altrouge said scanning the battlefield. "The red-headed one isn't here meaning he's either recovering or setting up a plan to beat me. I'm not going to allow that to happen. Primy destroy the grail."

The Beast of Gaia finished chewing up his meal and jerked his head towards the crystalline egg. His mouth opened and a dazzling light illuminated the night. Enduring the arrows that dissipated against his blackened flesh and bone he fired out another beam of white light that collided with the crystalline sphere causing cracks to form along the area.

"Damn," Arcueid said contemplating her next action. For almost the entirety of the war she had engaged the enormous canine in lieu of anybody else. Shirou had encouraged her opposition to the beast; reasoning that she was the only person that he was certain wouldn't be killed by it.

Countless bolts of light shaved flesh off the beast as Ishtar stepped up her firing rate but the wolf shrugged it off and Satsuki looked apologetically at Arcueid before charging towards the creature in order to stall any further attacks.

"Well will you look at that," Altrouge said. "That's a pretty sturdy structure to stand up to a blast from Primy." She looked like she was about to speak, but she lost the opportunity as in the next second she was forced to block one of Arcueid's strikes. Her flesh tore and her bones fractured slightly but she wasn't forced backwards this time.

"I see," she said and a smile crossed her face before she lashed out at Arcueid's face with her claws. The True Ancestor retaliated with a blow that she rolled with forcing her backwards. "You've somehow exorcised your link to Crimson Moon," she said as Arcueid was forced to jump back to avoid another lightning strike. "By doing that you've completely eliminated the vampiric impulses that his remnant gives." Arcueid leapt forward launching hundreds of blows and Altrouge met her blow for blow and being driven back only slightly. "Therefore you're able to use one hundred percent of your power. Right now you're far stronger than you've ever been." Arcueid broke the deadlock with a head-butt that cracked her skull but even then she still stood. "It's really too bad for you that I am also," she said catching the fist of Arcueid and crushing it. "The power of the Aylesbury ritual is lost to you now," Altrouge said, looking very sinister. "But don't worry. Your big sister will show it to you."

Altrouge jumped backwards raising her hands and a second later Arcueid leapt after her. She didn't manage to reach, her ears exploded and her organs felt like they were torn and shredded as she found herself face down on the floor. Trying to get her bearings as her body regenerated, Arcueid was treated to the sight of Altrouge staring down at her with a look of condescension and engaging in a soundless monologue.

"…powerful enough to circle the Earth four times, but you were probably slept through it, didn't you," Altrouge said finishing her mini-lecture as Arcueid's ears finished regenerating. "Oh, crap you didn't hear any of that did you," she said pouting. "Well I'm not going to repeat myself." She turned eying up the crystal and Arcueid noticed with some minor panic that the crystal cracks had widened and multiplied. Altrouge clapped her hands but this time Arcueid was ready creating a vacuum and containing the sound-wave. Leaping up from the floor she regarded Altrouge with wariness as befitted a predator of her stature.

Altrouge chanced another glance at the last grail, still prioritising the destruction of the last grail over putting down Arcueid and the True Ancestor took advantage. The ground cratered under the sheer force of Arcueid's charge and Altrouge had no time to react before one hundred and sixty pounds of angry True Ancestor punched her in the face. A horrific cracking sound and suddenly Altrouge's head was looking one hundred and eighty degrees in the wrong direction. Arcueid didn't slow down and devastated the off-guard Dead Apostles body with a series of blows that broke and disfigured her body causing her to collapse boneless to the ground.

As soon as she touched the ground, a very pissed off bark announced that there was at least one person who didn't appreciate the manoeuvre. Fifteen metres tall with red-eyes that told of unspeakable bloodlust; Primate Murder rocketed towards Arcueid with the speed of a bullet train and the inertia of a country. Arcueid tried braced for impact, but the anticipated collision didn't happen. Halfway through his charge an explosion of red light from the ground dissolved its arm into nothingness causing the beast to leap to the side to try and prevent the destruction of its entire body.

Arcueid blinked and barely refrained from rubbing her eyes. Standing there, exposed from its previous position buried under rubble, like the worlds absolutely worst nail, stood the weapon that Shirou had taken from Gilgamesh. The rotation of the chambers slowed down as she watched, leading to an almost fatal mistake.

Only a slight whisper in the wind and Arcueid's excellent instinct allowed her to avoid the certain death contained in the sword. Her quick reflexes allowed her to save her head, by sacrificing her arm. Instantly thousands of curses entered her form attacking her mind body and soul and Arcueid grimaced as she realised that while the vast majority were automatically disrupted by her innate magic resistance, there were still over a hundred that managed to bypass her immense magic resistance. Strout lashed out with a second blow that she barely avoided and Arcueid had no time to worry about Aoko as she tried to avoid her impending death.

Her death was averted as he turned suddenly and arrows bounced off his sword causing him to stumble back from the unexpected attack. The arrows were inherently different from that wielded by Ishtar but Arcueid didn't have any time to analyse them as the curses ravaged her body. Without losing any more time she tore her infected arm off her body and destroyed it. Immediately she felt some of the curses start to fade but a good portion weren't affected and she felt her sight start to blacken, her head start to feel fuzzy and her limbs to feel heavy. Every move caused her joints to grind in pain but she forced herself to move.

Altrouge had recovered from her savage beating and she stood up twisting her head back in place. She spoke but the words were fuzzy and indistinct to Arcueid's ears. She lunged forward and Altrouge answered her blow for blow. The difference immediately showed between the two of them at the moment. Where before Arcueid was overwhelming her, now the advantage ran the other way, and more and more blows fell upon her cursed body.

Pushing forward through the pain Arcueid summoned up her Noble Phantasm and was met with an equal response. The world clashed, and nature warped unnaturally as the two remaining users of Marble Phantasm clashed. But Arcueid was reluctant to leave it all up to her Marble Phantasm. The darkening in her vision informed her that there was a clear time limit to how long she could fight before she fell. If she fell and left both Primate Murder and Altrouge Brunestud to the others, then they would lose. Satsuki and Ishtar could barely stand up to Primate Murder and she had no idea what happened to Arcueid. There newest archer could not be relied upon and poor Rin was a bit out of her weight class. If she lost here than Shirou would arrive to this disastrous situation, by then they may have even finished the ritual. She would not let Shirou down.

Filled with determination Arcueid stormed through the convulsions of nature, catching Altrouge off guard and landing a blow that tore through the body of her opponent. Every fibre of her body hurt, but if she stopped now her body would stop altogether and therefore she didn't. She launched punch after punch at the Dead Apostle Ancestor, refusing to let her escape her grasp. Hundreds of strokes came together in a manner as Arcueid pulled combo after combo on her opponent reducing the Vampire Princess of the Dead Apostle Ancestors to a ragdoll. Even as her bones shattered, her organs ruptured and her skin tore open releasing her vital fluids, Arcueid still did not relinquish her attack.

Finally after what seemed like an eternity, but probably only took less than a minute, Arcueid felt her power run out. Her muscles were flayed, her hands were bloody, every bit of flesh ached and her body had stopped responding properly. Only then did Arcueid allow Altrouge to leave her grasp and only then did she make her fatal mistake. Whether by divine intervention from an evil god or the subconscious wishes of the ninth Dead Apostle Ancestor or even just plain bad luck Altrouge had been manoeuvred into a position that lined up with the grail.

By the worst fortune possible when Arcueid punched her away, she launched her directly towards the crystal sphere. Even worse was that ultimately Altrouge became the straw that snapped the camels spine. The sphere that Shirou had constructed from fragments of ORT's being, reached its limit and broke into fragments.

Altrouge Brunestud, the ninth Dead Apostle Ancestor, one of the two beings that could possibly succeed Crimson Moon stared in wonder at the last grail in front of her. He brain had haemorrhaged, there was less than a litre of blood still in her carcass of a body, her nerves had been shredded by the continuous punches. Any doctor in the world would pronounce her dead; any magus would pronounce her deader.

Still with a brain that didn't fire and a body that didn't work she looked at it with a silent plea to the world, and the world responded. Air pressure superheated and ionised to form plasma tore through the last grail shredding apart the delicate runes and magecraft. And with that all six grails had been destroyed. The vampires had won. The ritual commenced just as the failsafe of the last grail was enacted and the air turned to acid.

xxx

She screamed in her hell, or she would have if her lungs had not melted away. Her skin, muscles, nerves, bones were burnt away. The pain was so intense that not even blissful unconsciousness could take her. Scattered and broken thoughts were all that remained of her existence in this eternity that burnt away everything.

Time lacked any hard meaning in that place, but slowly and surely her mind stitched itself together. Her bones grew stronger, resisting that acid that corroded them. Her nerves burnt themselves into existence in a way that felt worse than any pain before and yet better than any time she had indulged in pleasure. Her organs formed from the infinite mana surrounding her in defiance of the impossible conditions. Her flesh formed around these organs and then was encased by unbreakable skin. Some of that flesh turned into impossibly strong muscles and her body twitched as the nerves occupied themselves with reining over them. She licked her lips as they formed with her newly created tongue. She breathed in the impossibly strong poison and found it lacking. Nails formed and she smiled at the sensation with her new-fangled teeth. Lastly black hair erupted from her head and she opened golden eyes.

With a smile Altrouge Brunestud stepped through the impossibly acidic, corrosive, poisonous mist and into the start of a new world.

 **Author Note: Writing a story gets far harder the longer it gets. You have to worry so much about continuity and all the different story threads.**

 **Mister BLINK: Thanks for asking a question that I had to genuinely wiki the hell out of. This is absolutely non-canon and my best guess. Humans in the ancient times; Babylonia, Rome, Egypt would be weaker than servants, about Bazett or Kirei's level.**

 **Indra Uzumaki: I've always thought of it like this. A bad author has no idea of the mistakes they make. A good author knows the mistakes while or after they write it down. A great author doesn't realize the mistakes because they solved them ten chapters ago. I'd like to think I'm a good author if that doesn't sound to prideful. Realistically i have no idea how I could have implemented it in bits and pieces, due to the fact that Shirou's dreams were also implemented in bits and pieces and she gets far less screen time.**

 **DPSS: That's good to. Having a villain that the reader wants to see die is a sign I succeeded.**

 **Please Read and Review**


	64. Chapter 64

"That is not good," Shirou stated the obvious as he teleported into the ruins of his house. Seeing the still unsettled dust in the air he reflexively brushed off his new clothes. Yes he had new clothes. Apparently while he was resting in a circle designed to isolate his personal time from Gaia, a few of the people had gotten together to create a new wardrobe for him. Apparently he now wore the most popular branded clothes or something. While the jacket was pretty warm, he didn't quite think it warranted the price and white was a horrendous colour for these kinds of fights. Yukika had presented him with a superb sapphire scarf though; that was pretty cool. A bit too chunni for his tastes normally, but if it was a gift he could justify wearing it.

Stepping forward he walked around an excavated box, a nostalgic chuckle escaped his lips as he recognized the rotted remains of the absurd amount of cannabis, he had obtained when he first built his ring. His amusement was short-lived however. The mephitic miasma that he had perfected whenever he had some free time signalled the destruction of the last of the grails and the completion of the ritual. Circumventing the mist of instant death he laid his eyes upon the motionless form of Arcueid. His senses immediately picked up a familiar set of curses that burrowed into her flesh and soul. His eyes flickered to the form of Rizo-Waal Strout who was being torn apart by countless arrows that he had also seen before, through his familiar's eyes.

"So he's changed sides," Shirou mumbled to himself, deciding to avoid looking a gift horse in the mouth. Stretching out his arm he lightly touched Arcueid's forehead. The sword that the Black Knight Strout wielded, "True Demon Neardark", was a blade that Shirou could confidently state is unable to be created in the current era, a remnant from when gods and demons freely walked the earth. It was an embodiment of hate, indiscriminately attacking a target's all with no subtlety but a surplus of power and cruelty.

Shirou on the other hand was a magician who controlled concepts such as curses. In addition he had prior experience with a very similar type of curse. On top of that he had dedicated a large amount of time improving his ability to resist and neutralize curses after seeing the grail shards that were implanted into Sakura. Lastly in his past life as Enki he was acknowledged as the first and archetypal god of cleansing and exorcisms.

The curses that infected Arcueid were instantly dissipated and the True Ancestor's breathing returned to normal as she opened her eyes.

"Did I kill her," Arcueid said stretching her body experimentally, wincing slightly at the lingering pain from the curses.

"Maybe," Shirou replied as his eyes fell upon the beast of Gaia. One of the creature's limbs was slowly regenerating and Shirou gave a rueful glance at the culprit. The Sword of Rupture would never tolerate an existence like Primate Murder that sought the death of all humans.

"Shirou were you listening to me," Arcueid said waving her hand in front of his face.

"Yes," Shirou said beckoning Ishtar and Satsuki to join him. "She might have been dead when the grail was destroyed, but she's not now." He looked in wonderment towards the site of the destroyed grail. "Can you feel the pressure of that prana," he exclaimed showing traces of excitement despite the situation. "It's been five thousand years since I've felt anything like that."

"So she might have died and got better," Arcueid said optimistically.

"Quite possible," Shirou said conversationally. "You can stop firing now," he turned and yelled at the assailant who was determinedly destroying Strout's body. "The ritual is continuously modifying their bodies; until it is finished they can't die." He turned back to Arcueid. "No she definitely did experience death of some kind. That mixture was inspired by the movie Alien. It's the end product of my attempts to combine both science and magic to create a liquid/gas that can instantly corrode anything. The secret ingredient is magic and fluorine if you're wondering. Basically don't touch it."

"Got it," Ishtar said as she arrived at Shirou's side. "Where were you? You've missed quite a party."

"I had to take a rest to regain my spell slots," Shirou replied instantly. "Ishtar I give you permission to unseal Manifestation of Beauty."

Rider smiled and in the next second a goddess once again descended upon the world. An artist could spend years examining every inch of her body and he while wouldn't be able to concretely say what the improvement was, he would likely drive himself mad trying to capture her impossible beauty.

"Feels good to be back to normal," Ishtar said as she inspected her body, the simple action appearing impossibly sensual. "The situation must be bad if you're letting me out."

Shirou didn't say anything and only gestured to the completely healed Primate Murder who was staring at the deadly cloud. The beast perked its ears up at the attention, before giving a glare and resuming its inspection of the miasma in which its master lay.

"Rin," the young magician said to the magus who had been making herself relatively inconspicuous up until that point. "You've been great up until now; you've performed beyond my expectations. If you don't retreat to a safe distance you are going to be caught up in this and killed."

"What would be a safe range," Rin replied.

"Well firstly do you have a passport?" Shirou started and then chuckled at the look on her face. "Nothing is safe," he said far more soberly. "I cannot promise Fuyuki will live to see tomorrow, but I can promise that if you don't get out of here then you're dead." Shirou raised his voice. "The same goes for you Bazett, you should leave your servant and get out of here! If I survive this I'll fix your problem, but I can't fix death!"

Silence fell for a moment and then the ground shook as a familiar form descended next to them. Well, familiar for Shirou and Ishtar at least, the others had met him yet. Black hair and a muscled body standing at well over two metres, the greatest of the Greek heroes descended.

"My master has commanded me to fight for you," he said, not taking his eye off of the three enemies for a second. "Do you have a plan?"

"No," Shirou said. "If we survive this, you must really tell me how you ended up as that woman's servant, it sounds like quite the story."

"Gladly," Heracles said. "But beware negative thoughts. If you consider death, then you shouldn't be surprised if he responds."

"Yeah," Arcueid said grasping his shoulder shaking the magician slightly. "We've gone through so much together. This will be no different."

"I'm confident that we can win," Satsuki said. "We have the strongest Vampire in the world, the Fourth Magician, two servants and me."

"Two magicians," the voice of Aoko reminded the rest of her presence. "Sorry Shirou, I think I still have some curse left. Could you get rid of it?"

Shirou nodded before grasping her shoulder and instantly dispersing the rest of the curse. Unlike Arcueid it seemed she was able to disperse most of the curses, leaving only a few stubborn ones remaining. Checking her over with the Fourth Shirou gave a brief smile in satisfaction.

"Thanks," Aoko said. "He nicked me with his sword and I waited slightly too long, before rewinding myself. I'm really not putting on a good show this war."

"Even the greatest warriors have been felled by luck and the fates," Heracles said sagely.

"I don't really want to hear that from you," Aoko said in a voice that would have been too soft to be heard if she wasn't surrounded by superhumans.

"That reminds me," Shirou said to the Greek hero. "I'm going to fix up your God Hand now."

The Greek hero blinked in surprise. "You can do that," he said. "It was divine protection bestowed by the gods themselves."

"I [broke] it," Shirou said flippantly. "I can [fix] it. Besides I'm basically the closest thing to an incarnated god on the planet right now."

"Hey," Ishtar yelled indignantly, her newly enhanced form almost compelling Shirou to immediately apologize.

"What?" Aoko said simulateneously.

"Oh right you were sleeping for that," Shirou said. "I'll tell you after the war," he waved off her concerns. "And it's fixed." He removed his hand from Heracles. "There are eleven charges remaining. Don't be afraid to use them."

"You think this will be the last stand?" Heracles asked.

"I think that if we hold back today, we won't see tomorrow," Shirou said looking off into the distance. "Rin's almost made it past the Fuyuki Bridge. Bazzet as well," Shirou said looking at Heracles. "I've sent Len with her so the exorcists shouldn't attack, despite her condition."

"It's ending," Satsuki said as the outpouring of prana abated slightly. Chatter died as the torn and broken body that was all that remained of Strout stood up suddenly like a mannequin on strings. His hand still grasped the sword that had cut into Arcueid and his eyes opened revealing pinpricks of red that illuminated the night. Everyone tensed as he lifted his sword up and then brought it down in a lazy swing.

A surge of pitch darkness extended from his sword, tainting the air with a fetid smell that attacked the senses. A moment before it hit a wall of ice sprang into being, defending the six. Shirou had a look of grim determination on his face as he sent his prana into the wall purifying the tainted energy as he did so. The raw malice that these curses contained was on a completely different level than those that infected Arcueid's wounds and Shirou found himself using all his concentration to struggle against the tide.

Unfortunately that loss of concentration prevented him from noticing the other threat that assaulted their position. The ice to his right shattered like glass and a blur of motion took Arcueid out of his sight. Purging the last of the curses he turned his body just in time to receive a kick to the chest that flattened sent him careening into his own ice wall. Shaking off the blow that he was pretty sure splintered his ribs, he watched as Altrouge Brunestud backflipped away from him and he was forced to use the Emiya crest in order to keep up with her movements. She landed and immediately took off with a burst of speed in the direction of Ishtar and Shirou summoned up his magic to stop her.

He didn't need to however, as she stopped for a brief moment as she approached the goddess, courtesy of the Manifestation of Beauty that Shirou had unlocked, and then stepping in front of her and proving the faith that Shirou had in him, was Heracles. He didn't even bother to attack the swift Dead Apostle Ancestor instead putting his body on the line and allowing the hit to connect. Her hand pierced through his chest with a sickening squelch; God Hand doing nothing to reduce the attack. Grasping her arm that had entered his body he held it tight and lashed out with his other fist, punching her square on the face.

Shirou blinked in surprise as Altrouge was sent flying back, but a quick glance confirmed his worst suspicions. Standing up and ignoring the rapidly dwindling pain he held a hand to forestall any more attacks. His body felt heavy and his movements felt slowed and his lungs were telling him that the oxygen content was lower. Kneeling without taking his eyes off the Dead Apostle playing possum he ran his hand through the soil and pulled out a handful.

"Non-terrestrial," he said examining the fine dust with small pebbles inside. "Moon rocks," he followed up. "Lunar rocks," he corrected himself not wanting to get into any sort of misunderstanding. "You guys should probably hold your breath, oxygen's going to be getting sort of scarce soon."

"Is that why I'm feeling so weak," Aoko said examining her body. "There's some reality marble surrounding us."

"Pretty much, her very presence is turning this place into the moon," Shirou said, the longer we take the worse it will get.

"Then why aren't you attacking," Altrouge said nonchalantly as she brushed off the dust. "I gave you the perfect opportunity. Are you perhaps stalling," she said cutely. "Maybe you're building up a last plan to defeat me."

"Hold on a moment," Shirou said raising his hand in a stop-gesture and then he punched himself in the face, quite hard. When Altrouge had been soaked in the bath of "molecular acid" her skin had come out looking great, unfortunately her clothes hadn't survived. "Excuse me; I was having inappropriate thoughts for the middle of a battle."

"Hmm, maybe I should go to battle like this in future," Altrouge said posing as she did so.

"Please don't," Rizo-Waal Strout said walking over to stand next to her. "Let's try to avoid getting a strange reputation."

"We could just flatten whoever goes against us in future," Altrouge said enthusiastically and Shirou winced due to the fact that she still wasn't wearing clothing. "Can't you feel the power flowing through you," she finished flexing her biceps.

"Yes I can," he said, it's very impressive. "I truly feel like my strength has reached the heavens. Now please put on your clothes." Apparently this was enough because Altrouge clicked her fingers and her prior clothes reformed on her body.

"Thank you," Shirou and Strout said simultaneously.

"Wow, that was quite a punch," Arcueid said as she reappeared and Altrouge scowled. "Hey Shirou does this mean we lost."

"We've lost a battle yes," Shirou admitted.

"But you still think you can win the war," Altrouge said with a smirk and then she relaxed. "Listen, we won. The Aylesbury ritual has been completed but this doesn't mean the end of the world. How about we leave you here and go do our own thing. I will admit your little adventuring party are pretty formidable and I'd rather not fight you if I don't have to."

"So you think you can complete the Aylesbury Ritual, plunge the world into chaos and walk away," Shirou said stoically.

"Yes," Altrouge said flippantly. "I have no real reason to fight you, do you have any to fight me."

"You're a person that has brought untold calamity to the world and will in future bring even more chaos," Shirou said still betraying no emotion. "Your companions are a man who wields curses that even I would hesitate to touch and the incarnation of human death. If that isn't a good enough reason to fight me I don't know what is."

"Nah, I don't feel like it," Altrouge said. "I'd rather not risk my life here. I'm just going to leave."

"Even if I tell you that I'm the person who killed Fina-blood Svelten," Shirou said. While his words weren't very loud the world immediately went silent.

"Huh, did you," Altrouge said. Not a speck of emotion came from the usually cheerful girl as an almost tangible pressure formed between them. She stepped forward and Shirou mirrored her making a gesture for the others to stay back.

"Well, I didn't kill him directly," Shirou started. "But my presence was instrumental to his death and defeat. If it wasn't for me," Shirou said; his voice barely more than a whisper. "He would still be alive."

A crunching noise sounded out and for a moment it looked like Shirou's body had become a corpse before he stood back up again. His new shirt that he had got was destroyed and his skin was covered in a layer of ice that was cracked but swiftly mending.

"You're fast," he said to her. "That was definitely faster than Arcueid's punches."

"You're durable," she rebutted. "That blow would have killed a servant. But that's good," she said smiling. "I don't want you to die just yet."

She stepped forward and disappeared and in that instant Shirou activated the Emiya crest to its fullest extent. Powering through the wind resistance and light he was able to dodge the first of the upcoming punches by stepping backwards, but Altrouge didn't let up as she rained cruel blow after cruel blow upon his armour of ice. Every time she aimed a strike towards his head he teleported away, but he deliberately let the blows towards his midsection and armour connect.

Finally after what seemed like ages but in reality took less than a second she stopped and he had to lock his legs to keep standing despite the fact that he could feel cracks running up his spine. Altrouge didn't get off easy either, her hands were blue and burnt and bloodied as a result of contact with ice that was far below zero. She didn't look like she gave a damn however and in the next few seconds the injuries were gone.

"Why?" she asked an impossible question. Or rather there was no answer that would satisfy her. "Why did you kill him?"

"Do I need a reason to defeat evil," Shirou said with an absolute lack of tact.

"I'm going to kill you," Altrouge said. "No death would be too easy for you." For the next few minutes she gave a tirade of things that she was going to do to him, going into graphic detail. Too her credit, none of the options that she presented would end with him dead, just wishing he was. Shirou silently applauded her creativity even as he counted down the seconds. He felt four signals that were connected to him, leech of the surrounding prana and direct it towards him and he forcibly stopped himself from tapping his foot with impatience.

Altrouge stopped her rant eventually her angry voice fading into nothing and she wiped her eyes. "Are you not going to apologize," she said. "Beg, pray, run or are you going to fight me. Well you wanted one; it will be your last so you better enjoy it."

Shirou opened his mouth to speak and then he closed it and smiled. "Kaede you beautiful girl," he said with a smile. Then the very next second the world went white. Prana build up comparable to that emitted when the last grail swirled around Shirou and despite her anger Altrouge took a step back warily. She would definitely avenge Fina, but Fina would have lost his mind if she got killed for revenge.

Rizo who had remained silent up until this point stepped forward to stand in front of Altrouge holding his sword aloft in a defensive position. While he also burned to take revenge he realized that despite their strength there was massive dangers in attacking somebody with that amount of prana within them.

Primate Murder stood up the hackles in his neck rising, his senses surpassed his master and her body guard both. The amount of prana that the watery one held was immense but it was dropping every second and being funneled into the one that smelt of gods, an unusual smell in this ages. He longed to rush forward and stop whatever they were planning but his feet wouldn't move. If he unleashed that amount of prana at his master then she could be hurt or killed. While he loved her, she was quite soft and squishy.

Arcueid, Satsuki, Heracles and Aoko had retreated as soon as the prana appeared funneled away by the urgent words of Ishtar. She alone stood next to Shirou and she felt the prana from him roughly enter her body. She cursed her weaker servant form as she realized that she wouldn't be able to hold this amount for long. But she didn't need to hold it for any amount of time. There was only one reason why Shirou would either give her this quantity of prana and she mentally prepared herself.

Suddenly the influx of prana around Shirou died down, all of it having being absorbed by Ishtar. But there was no time for any thoughts of attack.

"Ishtar, use it," Shirou commanded.

"Come forth Gugalanna," Ishtar said almost simultaneously.

And in the next second half of Fuyuki City drowned in flames.

 **Author Note: Shirou has now officially done more damage to Fuyuki City then all of the prior grail wars.**

 **Indra Uzumaki: I've worked too long on this fucking story to not at least write out a bittersweet ending.**

 **hyperomegasonic26: In the moments that she was cast into the grail she fell into Shirou's final trap and had her body basically dissolved. However the ritual was meant to reconstruct their bodies and both her and Rizo were healed and improved rather than dying.**

 **DPSS: Crimson Moon wasn't reborn. The ritual was never intended to do that. What the ritual was meant to do was to filter the impurities in the blood and bodies of the Dead Apostles of imperfections, making them closer to the blueprint that was Crimson Moon and his people. Cards on the table I scoured over mentions of the Aylesbury ritual on the wiki. Text says it's meant to bring Dead Apostle's together, my interpretation is it does so by raising the Dead, Ghouls and Vampires all to the purity of the original Lunarians/True Ancestors.**


	65. Chapter 65

The quiet streets of Fuyuki disappeared in an instant as an immense surge of heat burst through the streets and the air spontaneously combusted melting the roads to slag. Black thunderclouds formed above the beleaguered city clotting the air and blocking out the light from the moon and stars before they disgorged streams of water upon the scorched earth. The earth trembled and cracked forming massive fissures that toppled buildings and sank entire blocks as the sound of massive footsteps rang throughout the night. Lastly as if to overshadow all the prior proceedings a mountain arose in the middle of the centre of the city before the shadow emulated the form of a simply colossal bull, barely visible through the thick steam that arose from when the water from the heavens met the fire from the earth.

The fog didn't last for long as the next second a literal wall of noise blasted through the city swiftly levelling the remaining structures only to be stopped by a wall of white as soon as it crossed the Mion. However the shield was only able to protect the Shinto district. Under the power of that almighty cry the seas evaporated the land was reduced to dust and ash and even the weeping clouds were slowly pushed away. The creature that stood unveiled from its previous cover and framed across the backdrop of the ruins of Fuyuki didn't look like a creature of the Earth. With a bone white face with blue horns and glowing gold body, it dwarfed the mountain on which Ryuudou temple stood. Its entire body crackled with electricity and was accompanied by an eldritch glow that spoke of an inherent divinity of which a modern human could not begin to understand. A single glance was enough to announce to the world that a God had descended upon the earth as it lit up the night plunging Fuyuki City into the light of day.

Shirou grimaced as he stood on the golden back of the creature as his hand burned with the final command seal. At the last moment before summoning he had commanded Ishtar to control Gugalanna and the servant still stood next to him fighting to keep control over the raging force of nature. At this moment he was immensely glad he did. Despite his preparations and his collaboration with the exorcists he had no illusions that one hundred percent of the inhabitants of Miyama were evacuated. The Beasts very summoning had killed those he desired to protect and he felt blood run down his hands as his nails penetrated the skin and he deliberately uncurled his fists.

The rainstorm caused wetness to roll down his face and Shirou cursed his Kiritsugu thoughts that forced him to do this but there would be no better time to get rid of the trio. He had lost, they had won and completed the Aylesbury ritual and unleashed the Dark Six, the seed of power that lay dormant within each Dead Apostle but in winning they had handed him an opportunity. A tremendous amount of prana released by the completed ritual, a servant with the ability to summon a being of such power that he needed a colossal amount of prana to do so, a target to unleash it upon and the time and manpower to create a battlefield on which to unleash it. As well as one last trick up his sleeve, he thought as he let out a half-hearted grin.

Still he couldn't afford to dawdle. To summon the Bull of Heaven was a sin. The creature had most likely already disrupted weather patterns for the next few years and Shirou had no desire for a pyrrhic victory. Lifting up a hand he pointed at his chosen target.

"Get them," he instructed the Beast through Ishtar.

xxx

Arcueid gritted her teeth as she channelled the power of her Marble Phantasm rejecting the hell around her. Behind her stood Satsuki, Aoko and Heracles, each of them stood in her bubble of protection from the fiery streets of Fuyuki. She squinted, trying to see through the blisteringly hot vapour and then her eyes widened as she beheld the form of the Beast in front of her. Its golden skin was bright enough that it was like staring into the sun and she was forced to blink at the unexpected light.

"Oh wow," she said trying to find words when there were no words sufficient. "Oh wow, the property prices in Fuyuki are going to decrease." She paused a bit and then tapped her head. "Wait, that's not the problem now." Shirou had announced his intention to kill all three and it was her job as his friend, lover and teammate to back him up in his reckless decisions.

Still what should she do? There were three targets and while they were empowered by the ritual the weight of numbers was still on their side. She had already tangled with Primate Murder a few times during the nights but she had not been able to gain a conclusive advantage and while she felt that she could go a bit further now that the weight of the bloodlust had been lifted from her she had still only glimpsed the bottom of the Beast of Gaia's power.

An explosion of sound impacted throughout Fuyuki and Arcueid had less than a second to create a vacuum that diverted the deadly waves. The wave of sound cleared the fog and Arcueid whistled as she caught sight of the Divine Beast. Yup that's going on the satellites. Well done Shirou, you just probably gave away the existence of the moonlight world. Well, a bit more than the vampires already did at least.

"I guess we'll worry about it tomorrow," Arcueid said to herself as she focused once more on the problems in front of her. The three large problems that she still had no clue how to deal with. She didn't have much time to worry as Gugalanna moved at a speed that belayed its great size, thrusting forward with its hood towards the spot that Altrouge stood. Golden light illuminated the area as the hoof impacted kicking up dust that briefly blocked vision of the fight.

There was no period of hope, for in the same second a blast of white light, distinctly visible through the golden illumination blasted through the air striking the golden bull on the face and causing it to jerk backwards slightly. That simple involuntary movement caused an earthquake to tear through the surrounding area and Arcueid had to focus to negate the tremors. Stepping out from the dust and smoke was a nightmare. At half the size of Gugalanna it was also a creature that could be called mountainous.

Primate Murder had shed its blood and flesh entirely, becoming a hulking mass of bone. But the bones didn't follow that of any endoskeleton in nature. An enclosed ribcage and stomach gave it an armoured appearance as well as dozens of long bones making up each arm and leg gave it an otherworldly nature. It stood not as a wolf, but instead crouched, almost manlike in its motions and the fact that its paws had been replaced by what seemed to be overlarge human hands did not make it look any more child friendly. Clutched in one of its hands was Altrouge Bruenstud and Arcueid realised that the beast must have saved its master.

Another ground shaking roar and the Bull of Heaven charged forward with head down and horns aimed and collided with the Beast of Gaia creating a shockwave as it pushed the newly grown Primate Murder back. The beast retaliated instantly with its free hand, relentlessly swiping at the bull and scoring a few hits causing golden droplets of blood to rain down upon the battered city. The superficial wounds didn't slow the beast down and the bull flung carried the the wolf and its master out of sight.

"Are they having a kaiju fight in the middle of Fuyuki?" Satsuki asked, her tone slightly disbelieving.

"It appears so," Aoko said. "Or at least what's left of Fuyuki. At least maybe people will stop complaining when I cause so much destruction." She let out a brief laugh and then stopped. "That's not funny," she said shaking her head. "Thousands must have died." She looked like she was about to throw up right there and then.

"Focus on the present," Arcueid snapped. It looked like Satsuki was also starting to realize the magnitude of Shirou's actions. "He probably weighed up the benefits and chose the best option. Those people are dead. We'll be disrespecting their sacrifice if we let this opportunity go to waste." Mentally patting herself on the back she scanned the dust and locked onto the form of Rizo-Waal Strout who was moving away trying to re-join Altrouge.

Arcueid refused to let that happen though and she reacted by summoning the molten streets behind him and forming it into a wall of lava in front of him. One benefit was that when Shirou destroyed the city he effectively removed the civilisation allowing her to use her Marble Phantasm far more freely. Still the wall barely halted him for more than a second as he slashed forward with his sword causing the thousands of curses to disintegrate the wall in front of him. She caught up to him in an instant but had to back up just as fast as the wave of curses impacted the area she stood in momentarily.

"You really don't want to get in between me and her," Strout said, his voice low and threatening.

"You're actually standing between me and Shirou," Arcueid rebutted. "So I'm saying the same thing right back to you."

Strout's eyes narrowed and he raised his sword parallel to him before charging forward at the White Princess.

xxx

Shirou dodged to the side as the massive clawed hand of Primate Murder flew past the side of his head creating a vacuum of wind pressure as it did so. He really did not want to try his hand directly against the formerly White Beast so he allowed the Gugalanna to take those wounds on his behalf. While he would have liked the assistance of Arcueid and the others they would have just hindered him in this situation. The Bull of Heaven was an indiscriminate natural disaster that was taking all their concentration just to steer in the right direction. Ishtar had long charmed the beast and was beloved by it and Gugalanna knew better than to mess with Enki and thus the two of them were safe from its wrath, the rest wouldn't be.

The hairs on his neck stood up on end as billions of volts slammed into the body of Primate Murder and he took it head on, protecting Altrouge from the bolts of white lightning that repeatedly struck. Still the fight needed his contribution also. It was possible Gugalanna couldn't defeat it or that Ishtar would run out of prana eventually despite the constant stream that flowed through him from the runes.

"Let's uneven theses odds," Shirou said as he raised his arm and a massive sword of ice formed above and struck down upon the formerly White Wolf.

xxx

Arcueid dodged another slash from True Demon Neardark and contemplated once more that the sword really stood up to its moniker of True Demon. She couldn't approach him for fear of infection by the curses and thus she was forced to stay out of his range using her Marble Phantasm to harass him by dropping boulders, creating volcanoes, summoning tornadoes and dozens of other natural disasters, but he survived each one, easily regenerating from countless instances of destroyed flesh, shattered bones and torn muscle.

Tapping her foot and creating a trench beneath him, Arcueid tried to bury him, drowning her opponent in a mix of stone and soil. At first Strout made progress against the tide of earth that battled him but as Arcueid gritted her teeth the streams of rock grew to rivers of land that buried the resisting Ancestor under the hill.

Arcueid wiped the sweat off of her brow and took a deep breath. She had no illusions that Strout would be killed by the burial but she was confident that it would buy her some time. She focused on the golden and black collosi that were fighting in the distance. They had already travelled miles but they were still clearly visible as there was no standing structure to block the line of sight. Sighing Arcueid crouched down mentally calculating the distance that she had to travel and in the next second she leapt towards the pair.

Or at least that was her intent. The instant before her feet left the ground she felt a hand grasp her ankle and she instinctively looked down just in time to see a familiar black sword plunge towards her thigh. Indescribable pain hit her the next second and her nerves screamed as black fire spread up the stump of her leg and she bared her teeth trying to heal from the onslaught of pain that was slowly…

Suddenly the pain vanished and Arcueid stumbled back onto two fully healed legs. In an instant she was grabbed and dragged away from the stream of curses.

"Not all are Vampiric goddesses," Aoko scolded her panting slightly as she did so. "Give us some time to catch up to you."

"You healed me," Arcueid said dumbly.

"I erased the time in which you got injured," Aoko clarified. "Now come on we can't let Satsuki handle him alone."

Arcueid turned around immediately and to her great surprise she found that Satsuki actually did seem to be able to handle her alone. Her skin glimmered grey and her hands were tipped with knifelike claws. To the surprise of the other two she managed to clash against the black sword without any sign of the curses affecting her. Arcueid and Aoko watched as the youngest of their group fought head to head with the sixth Dead Apostle Ancestor.

"How?" Strout said as he locked blades with Satsuki's claws before punching her in the face sending her backwards. "How are you able to resist Neardark.

Satsuki clicked her neck and wiped a bit of blood off the corner of her mouth. "Might as well tell you," she said flippantly. "It's all Sumire's doing," she answered while smiling. "Almost all of the creatures that she sent towards me had some form of curse resistance. I thought it was odd at the time but it seems like she was one step ahead. Even from the grave my master is still looking out for me," Satsuki said wistfully.

"You're Sumire's apprentice," Strout said eying up the younger woman. "Good. I cannot miss an opportunity to end another of her apprentices."

In response Satsuki just raised an eyebrow and made a come hither gesture and Arcueid was struck with nostalgia at how Satsuki had evolved in the four years she had known her.

"She's really grown hasn't she," Arcueid said to herself. Sumire would truly have been proud she thought more sombrely before shaking her head and leaping into the fray once again.

xxx

The gigantic ice sword impacted the black boned beast with a sound like a thunderclap but the armoured creature didn't buckle under the weight. Huffing in slight annoyance Shirou turned the ice into frozen slurry that clung to the beasts back before solidifying in an attempt to freeze it but it didn't do much good as Primate Murder shook itself free of the frost. The momentary distraction did some good however as Gugalanna took advantage of it to drive its horns into the beast, goring bloodless holes in the black exoskeleton.

Shirou raised his hand again in an attempt to further lock down the beast when his senses went wild a second after he received a blow to the chest that launched him right off the Bull of Heaven. Immediately teleporting back and conscientiously ignoring his crushed bones he arrived just in time to prevent Altrouge Brunestud from beheading his servant. Summoning both of the golden swords Gilgamesh gave him he locked blades with her hands and was slightly surprised to see that they did not cut, but instead his own muscles nearly buckled under the pressure of those pair of blades.

"Cannot go easy, right," Shirou muttered to himself realizing that the air had already begun to lose oxygen and the heaviness had already started to settle on him. Pulling his one hand away from the handle of the sword and leaving a hand of ice in place he lashed out, his fist becoming cloaked in a block of ice as he aimed for Altrouge's centre mass. The fist predictably was avoided as Altrouge flipped over it and launched a killing strike at the neck of Shirou, but Shirou was not caught unawares and he teleported directly above the Eclipse Princess and then immediately teleported behind her again just as she turned to meet him. A kick slammed into her unprotected back and she was launched upwards into the air before her back glowed with runes and she exploded.

There was no way in hell that would put her down so Shirou leapt backwards in time to avoid a meteoric punch that even managed to even dent Gugulanna's impossibly hard body. Countless bullets of water evaded or deflected serve as a distraction as they burst into mist obscuring her vision allowing him to put a bullet in her head. Unfortunately her unpredictable movements caused him to miss her eye and she recovered almost instantly rushing forward and swiping at him forcing him to engage her with the swords again. The blows came hard and fast and Shirou pushed prana into the Emiya crest to keep pace with her. There was a firm technique in her attacks that his mediocre level of swordsmanship couldn't manage, so he cheated. Leaning forward as his swords locked he spat acid into her eyes and then when she stumbled he unleashed [Amessunu Istenis] into her chest.

The backlash of unleashing it at such a short range nearly broke his fingers, but to his grudging amazement the Vampire Princess powered through his ultimate attack and lashed out in a display of raw power and speed that left Shirou unable to do anything but defend as sword met claw. Stepping backwards Shirou waited for a break in the attack but none came as the blows picked up speed and Shirou's ears nearly bled as the sound barrier broke hundreds of times a second.

The end of the bout was swift and unexpected; there was no impending sound of metal creaking or ominous cracks as the sword on the left snapped in two, unable to bear the pressure laid upon it and the claws eviscerated Shirou carving deep into flesh and organs. Letting out a silent scream, Shirou froze the wound and started summoning his armour, but he didn't get much of an opportunity as Altrouge focused on his unarmed left side and he was forced to defend with ice that barely impeded her strikes at all.

His salvation came at the hands of a collection of brilliant arrows of glowing light that coalesced on the spot of the opposing vampire. Less than one in a hundred actually managed to hit her, but those that did managed to scorch her flesh and Shirou contemplated whether it was due to Ishtars natural power or the vampire's natural weakness towards light. Ishtar represented Venus, not the sun so it must be the former he decided as he became encased in armour of ice. Leaping forward he intercepted Altrouge just as the Bull of Heaven roared once more, and rearied up on its hindlegs and the two of them went tumbling off the side of Gugalanna.

xxx

Satsuki stumbled as the ground crumbled beneath her feet and was immediately forced to duck under a slash that would have parted her head from her shoulders. As the fight wore on the ground had been infected by the myriad of curses to an extent even greater than the one Shirou had cleared out a year ago. As a result the ground seemed to actively work against them, shifting subtly in order to inconvenience them. She had already lost count of the number of times she had lost her foothold on the crumbling malignant ground.

She disengaged slightly as a tornado shredded into Strout's flesh, although he quickly shrugged it off. Arrows rained down on him and he dodged and deflected all of them shrugging off the destructive magic of Aoko that could easily level buildings. Those arrows of Heracles had done the most damage by far out of all of them. They very seldom hit as the Black Knight gave the highest priority to stopping them, and the few that hit had prompted him to tear out his own flesh rather than suffer through the unbelievably deadly poison.

If she had to fight Strout alone she would have undoubtedly lost. Mountains of strength were contained in his muscular form and his speed was fast enough that Satsuki could barely track him with her eyes. Despite her inherent resistance to curses she would have been long been overwhelmed by these two factors.

Even as she said that Strout dodged to avoid a few more of those venomous missiles and Satsuki took the opportunity to launch a crystalline fist into his ribs, breaking the flesh, snapping the bones and causing him to stumble back a few steps. Still she almost bit her tongue as a lightning fast haymaker impacted her skull in response to her minor overextension. She tasted copper in her mouth and she saw dancing sparks out of the corner of her eyes but she forced herself to get back into the fight. While the assault from Aoko, Arcueid and Heracles had bought her some time, ultimately none of them could even fight this close to the curse filled sword. Launching herself at the swordsmen she ducked beneath the sword and lashed out with clawed hands plunging through his stomach and then his chest

She was forced to instantly retreat as the True Demon Neardark sliced through the space she occupied a fraction of a second ago. Strout regenerated as she watched and then spinning his sword, he released a black mist of curses that seemed to eat away at the world and faded from sight.

"Since when could he do that?" Satsuki heard Arcueid say in that back ground and a tornado picked up that was utterly ineffective against the black fog. Suddenly it swelled forward and Satsuki prepared herself for the onslaught of curses, trusting in the resistance bestowed upon her by her mentor's creatures. Rushing forward like a swarm of insects she stood ready against the incoming darkness. Suddenly her concentration was broken by another bellow from the giant bull. That split second cost her dearly.

Satsuki looked down. Just that simple act took all her energy. She had a weird double vision thing going on and her head felt a million times heavier. She tried to take a breath but the oxygen didn't quite seem to reach her lungs. Looking downwards her eyes saw the source of the problem. A massive black sword had stabbed in through her stomach. "Wait," her hazy thoughts slowly corrected as more and more neurons went silent. "It wasn't stabbed, it was a slash…" those were the last thoughts that went through her head before the top half of her body split in two sending both halves into the ground. Her sight faded to darkness as she felt innumerable curses invade her soul.

xxx

Ishtar let out a hail of Babylonian curses as she fought to regain control over Gugalanna again. The beast constantly demanded her attention or he would indiscriminately rampage. Just firing a few arrows in order to save Shirou had caused her to lose control over the Divine Beast and she was very lucky that Gugalanna seemed to regard Primate Murder with an ubelievable amount of hostility. In the brief moments that he had been let off the leash he had gored the wolf before roaring at it with the concentrated force of a hurricane. Primate Murder had not escaped unscathed from those wounds and while the armour had swiftly grew back and the bones had easily returned to their healed state, Ishtar had seen in that instant that the creature was not invincible and that the Bull of Heaven was more than enough to hurt it.

An explosion of ice blossomed on the back of the Beast of Gaia and Ishtar's enhanced vision managed to pick out the icy armoured form of Shirou fighting Altrouge on top of the Beast. "How did he get on there," Ishtar wondered as she fought to regain control over the Bull of Heaven. Her efforts proved fruitless as the raging storm disguised as a bull had sunk fully into bloodlust.

"Screw it," she decided. Shirou needed her help. Gugalanna could handle Primate Murder. Running to the edge and taking a leap, she overshot her target, the Beast of Gaia embarrassingly rushing beneath her as Primate Murder lurched forward, jaws wide in an attempt to bite down on the bull. That was Gugalanna's concern however, not Ishtar's. She was just about to summon her Boat of Heaven Maana in order to get back when a wall of ice appeared in front of her and she gratefully twisted her body to ricochet off it and onto the back of the wolf.

As she landed on the muscular back of the beast she had to pause for a moment to appreciate the fight between Altrouge and Shirou. Countless shards of ice were casually smashed into pieces by Altrouge forming a pervasive mist that she ignored as she advanced towards the icy armour that sprouted multiple frosted arms and flung jets of water at hypersonic speed.. Ishtar drew a bead on the evolved vampire letting out dozens of beams of light with enough power each to scorch a city block. Manifestation of Beauty activated, her skill negating any attempt at defense or attack against the goddess that defined beauty. Or at least that's what it would originally have done. Incarnated as a servant it would only decrease the parameters of opponents and seal off some of their skills and she had used it to great effect in the last barrage. That unbeatable combination bore down upon her opponent.

Ishtar nearly died in that second. Unlike last time when she had caught the ascended apostle off guard, this time Altrouge reacted instantly doing a half turn and punching the air with such force that all the arrows of light utterly shattered and Ishtar was blown backwards by the miniature hurricane. Unfortunately at that instant Primate Murder went flying as Gugalanna reacted and ran the wolf through with its horns.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Gaia's Beast retaliate with a blast of white light from its mouth that scorched away the golden skin of the Bull. That observation nearly cost her as Altrouge decided she was a far more tempting target than the crafty Magician. She dodged to the left twisting her body in a manner that would cause even the most skilled contortionist to spit out their drink. She managed to dodge it by a hairs breadth but the heat from the blow scorched her side and the vampire immediately turned to launch a follow-up kick that would split her in half.

That kick didn't come however as Shirou teleported behind Altrouge, armourless and with moisture coalescing around his hands he attempted to launch some form of killing strike at the back of the female Dead Apostle Ancestor. It didn't reach as Altrouge swivelled launching a kick at Shirou instead and Ishtar heard a sickening crack as his arms bent in places they weren't supposed to and he went sliding back across the armoured back of the Wolf.

Altrouge immediately abandoned her attack on Ishtar and leapt towards Shirou in an attempt to take advantage of his weakness. That was a mistake however as halfway through the leap Primate Murder's back lit up with runes beneath her before exploding in a wave of heat and light. The Beast of Gaia howled in pain and it took a few moments for Ishtar to understand the obvious that was in front of her face. The wounds were not healing. Even as Primate Murder started to thrash forcing herself to run to keep her balance on top of the monster, even as Altrouge regenerated and resumed attacking Shirou with twice the fury, to be met with an autonomously operating armour of ice, even as she joined in firing arrows of light that did little if any damage, still the Beast of Gaia would not heal.

"I don't know what you're doing," she said to Shirou as her hands blurred as she drew and notched arrow after arrow. "But keep it."

xxx

Rizo-Waal Strout gasped in pain at the loss of his left arm to a jet of magma. Even though it grew back almost instantly the pain faded far slower than the damage and he could feel the mental fatigue continue to build. Ever since he had killed the brown haired disciple of Sumire the fight hadn't gotten any easier. There were generally two kinds of people when it came to fighting, those who grew weaker with anger and those who grew stronger. After this fight he could safely say that the White Princess was in the former camp. The cursed Miasma hid him but it did no good as the earth was blanketed by lightning strikes and burnt in lava and shredded by typhoon winds. He was unusually durable by the standards of Dead Apostle Ancestors but even he would reach his limit if the White Princess didn't stop her assault. Alone he would have moved against the other Brunestud and tried to trap her in the curses but the destructive blasts from the Fifth Magician were somehow able to vaporise the curses and he had to constantly worry about her. At least the Archer had stopped wasting his arrows. Those unbelievably powerful arrows would have killed anybody with less vitality than him. If he had faltered for even a moment in tearing out pieces of his own body he would almost certainly be dead now.

Unfortunately he couldn't see any way out. The air turned to acid and his lungs burned but his regeneration took care of it. After the ritual, he felt strong. He was maybe strong enough to take on the White Princess herself, but not strong enough to take on her and two additionally powerful beings. Resolving himself to try he gripped his sword tightly… and a chill went up his back.

Something was watching him. He only noticed it now, but it was definitely focused on him and had been for God knows how long. His eyes scanned the darkness uselessly. He couldn't see through the miasma any better than any other, but his possession of True Demon Neardark allowed him to sense anything the curses affected. That was why it was such an eerie feeling when he sensed nothing at all.

An unbelievable amount of bloodlust hit him for an instant and he reacted in that same instant, bringing up True Demon Neardark to guard his back. Still even with that minute amount of forewarning the blow hit his sword like a truck and it took all he had to keep standing. The assailant didn't capitalise on his weakness and he had a few seconds rest before he had to guard himself from another one of those powerful, taking the force on the side of his blade.

"Who are you?" he demanded uselessly to the dark. "Are you my enemy?"

No answer was forthcoming, at least not a verbal one. Punches ran down from every angle causing his sword arm to falter and his bones to splinter under the persistent onslaught. He gritted his teeth and endured but somehow his opponent could see through the mist and yet he could not see his opponent. Without seeing it he could not read its attacks. This put him at an unbelievable disadvantage and yet if he dispelled the mist then he would be at the mercy of the True Ancestor, the Magician and the Archer.

The decision was made for him however for in the next instant the mist cleared, absorbed into her in a display that was different from anything he had seen before. Standing before him was the woman that he had nearly sliced completely in two without a scratch on her. Strout reeled the momentary shock before swiftly recovering. Healing from that wound was not that unusual, he could easily do it, his mistress and most of the other Dead Apostle Ancestors could also do it. The problem was that when he stabbed her he pumped her blood full of curses. She should be dead with a hundredth of the dose he gave her. No possible curse resistance could have stood up to that.

Raising his sword he examined his priorities. He was once again outnumbered and outmanoeuvred. With his newfound strength he might be able to defeat the White Princess but there was no way he could defeat the four of them without another lucky break.

"Do you know that I have a Reality Marble?" Satsuki said interrupting his deliberations. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the other three halt at the sight of their friend.

"No," he said warily, trying to buy time.

"It's simple I can absorb the DNA, the blueprints of any creature and apply it to my own body," she stated causing Strout to stiffen as he tried to contemplate which creature allowed her to resist the curses. "And now you're wondering which creature gave me curse resistance," she said confidently, enjoying having one over her opponent. "It's simple," she said almost whispering the words. "I've just absorbed the DNA of a True Demon."

Despite all his awareness he was still caught off guard by her words. In the next instant she lunged forward with her hands that had sprouted crystals again and when Strout tried to block the sudden attack with True Demon Neardark she managed to grab his sword almost effortlessly, the blade naturally fitting into her grip. He was briefly halted, and the moment was more than enough as his nerves relayed a sudden pain in his wrist and he looked down in despair to see his fleshed penetrated by the poisonous arrow.

"That's it then," he said feeling agony start to course through his veins. There was a weird feeling besides the poison that flowed through him that he vaguely recalled as despair. He had lost. A swordsman does not let go of their weapon. Furthermore without his faithful sword he would not be able to even put up a token fight. When it came down to a choice between dying with his sword in his hand or not… Well it wasn't really a choice at all.

"I'm sorry I could not adequately repay your kindness Princess," he addressed his master and friend before discarding his remorse. He was for all intents and purposes already dead, well dead twice now, but he was eager to see how long his corpse could survive if he abandoned his restraint. The pain of the poison was excruciating so he discarded his sense of pain, effectively lobotomising the portion of his brain that allowed him to feel discomfort. Smiling for no good reason he leapt forward, with no hope, at the brown-haired girl aiming to kill her, then the Archer, then the White Princess, then the Magician.

There were three minutes between his time of death and when his corpse stopped moving. And thus Rizo-Waal Strout the sixth Dead Apostle Ancestor died.

xxx

Altrouge Brunestud was actually getting quite angry. It was actually quite unusual for her, she reflected as she launched a punch towards the aggravating master feeling the air combust as the wind compressed. Slowly she became the centre of a firestorm as the sheer kinetic energy her every movement gave off caused the surrounding temperature to rocket. Dodging to the side to avoid another barrage of those deadly arrows she spun around kicking the air and creating a sonic boom that towards that annoying servant. The omnipresent mist that was formed by the collision of ice and fire disappeared momentarily as the wind blew through and Altrouge watched in hopeful anticipation that faded into annoyance as the enemy Rider dodged the miniature gale, her only damage being a few strands of her hair.

Hopefully that would stop the bint from shooting at her when she had her back turned. Growling in annoyance she charged towards the ice armour hoping to finally evaporate it to the point it could no longer repair. Motion appeared in the corner of her eye and she turned on a dime, arm whipping out towards the teleporting form of her enemy.

Whereas initially he had fought her from the armour, he now had fully abandoned it and used his speed and teleportation to harry her while summoning more and more of the ice and water to attack her from all sides. The constant rain didn't help, giving him a source of nearly infinite water that he used to summon constructs of ice and water to harm her. She had even tried to blow away the clouds and somewhat succeeded. The sheer power behind her blows in her ascended state was enough to clear the skies but they soon resumed as long as that Bull was alive.

The red-headed master teleported from multiple angles and she was forced to block all of his punches before getting in one of her own and she heard the sound of crunching indicating that she had at least broken the ice protecting him if not his bones. The other golden sword that he had earlier wielded stabbed at her from her blind spot, but she managed to sense it and easily snapped the weapon.

That wasn't a good idea as the weapon exploded into a wave that slammed down upon her with the force of a mountain. Even still her legs didn't buckle and she endured it wading through the water in an attempt to catch the elusive master. Primate Murder shook and she almost lost her balance wincing at the wounds inflicted upon her beloved pet before dismissing them. Primy had always been tough, worse wounds had been inflicted upon him before and he had always recovered from them. This time won't be any different.

"You know I've often wondered about a vampire's regeneration," Shirou said from behind her and she swiftly turned her hands moving to destroy the hundreds of icy needles. She leapt at him only to be intercepted by that icy armour that he had once donned. "It's due to the vampire's innate connection with Gaia," he explained. "You actually no longer possess it."

"Impossible," Altrouge responded as she pummelled the ice in front of her. She was grudgingly impressed at its durability. With every punch whole portions of the armour were obliterated but she was sure that she could destroy entire streets with an equally powerful punch. "My regeneration hasn't waned. Instead it's grown stronger."

"Yup," Shirou said chirpily and massive swords of ice shot down towards the Dead Apostle Ancestor. Altrouge casually dodged them and they bit into the beasts muscle. "Lunarians have a naturally powerful healing factor, far more so than the average Dead Apostle or even Ancestor." Altrouge finished off the armour with a single punch and strode towards him.

"Why do you feel the need to chat," she said walking right up to him. "I've already told you what I'm going to do to you?"

"I actually don't normally chat in battle," Shirou said. "I find it pointless, but sometimes I make an exception. So let me explain. I have to physically insert oxygenated water in my throat to breathe in this fucking vacuum you've generated. So I'm going to make it short."

"Vampires use their connection to the World to heal and so do some phantasmal beasts like your pet here," Shirou said smiling despite the harbinger of death that stood a metre away from him. "When their connection to the World disappears so does their factor. Tell me Altrouge," he said as his smile turned sinister. "When was the last time you used your Marble Phantasm?"

Altrouge felt shock hit her and for a moment every cell in her body froze. When was the last time she used it? Why hadn't she thought of using it before? She looked at her hands. She hadn't even thought of using it because it felt so unnatural. She tried to use her Marble Phantasm but it felt like a limb was missing. An indescribable feeling of loss welled up within her and she had to blink back tears at the thought of it being gone.

But Shirou wasn't finished yet. "But even now you're still not seeing the bigger picture," he continued mercilessly. "Everywhere you stand is converted into the environment of the Moon. What do you think that would do to certain creatures like…" he paused. "Your pet here? Open fire with everything you have on Altrouge Brunestud," Shirou said coolly before he teleported away.

Thousands of thoughts flashed through the older Brunestud's head. Her loss of her Marble Phantasm was shocking to the extreme but the thought that she could actually be hurting Primy made it hard to breathe. At some point during the speech she had fallen to her knees and she now scrambled to her feet in time to see a massive lightning bolt strike down at the space she stood at. Primy dodged it but her friend took some more damage and she winced at the wounds she had taken. She needed to get away from him. She was poisoning him just by being there. Just as she was about to put her thoughts into action she felt pain stab her through the heart.

The source was unknown and got caught in her thoughts trying to understand it. Something was badly wrong. Primate Murder moved and twisted his body to avoid the combined attacks of Gugalanna, Ishtar and Shirou but the wounds continued to accumulate upon his body. Altrouge didn't notice any of this however as she continued to think. In actuality she had come to the conclusion pretty quickly but refused to accept it. She always maintained a firm grasp of where her servants were. She just must have lost Rizo. It must be a momentary thing. Too much bad news in a short amount of time must have caused her to lose track of him. Rizo can't be dead. Why did that preposterous thought even enter her head? It's so stupid. She's so stupid. Her tears outdid the rain and, no longer in a right state of mind, she fell off the back of Primate Murder. 'He's dead,' she thought as numbness spread from the wound in her heart. "He's dead, he's dead, he's dead," she repeated refusing to accept it."

A bolt of lightning dwarfing any seen before rushed towards her to put her out of her misery and she closed her eyes accepting death. It never came. Stepping in front of the lightning and absorbing the full force of the power of nature was Primy. He howled out his pain but still he stood there. In an instant hundreds of arrows of light and an equal amount of jets of powerful water joined in with the lightning punishing his body but he refused to move.

"Save yourself," Altrouge wanted to scream but she couldn't and she could only watch in horror as her last remaining friend's wounds accumulated. "Get away from me," she eventually forced out in barely a whisper. "I'm poison, leave me here."

Primy heard and turned to look at her. His visage was horrifying. Barely any of his head remained and the majority of his flesh had been stripped away. Nothing was healing and in fact the opposite happened, the remnants of his flesh seemed to be falling apart as his immense power dissipated. His one remaining eye showed no condemnation, instead only gratitude and acceptance showed in the remains of his face. Shuffling up to her he started to shrink and yet the attacks didn't wane at all. Only when he reached her did the attacks cease and by that stage he was only the size of a horse. Reaching her he licked her face and while Altrouge was never a fan of licking that particular area, the thought of refusing never crossed her mind. She raised her arms to hug him but her arms could not embrace him any longer as the Beast of Gaia, the fifth Dead Apostle Ancestor succumbed to his wounds in her arms.

'It's funny,' she thought as she lay there under the disintegrating body of her friend. I don't feel sad. When Rizo had died a few minutes ago she had felt crushed. She had felt like she would never be happy again. With Primy dead she no longer had any reason to care. She wanted to curse the stupid ritual for stealing her friends but in the end it was a wasted effort. She stood up pushing the empty piece of meat that used to contain her friend and walked forward. She had no more time for this world.

Stepping through the rainy streets she was easily able to spot the red haired one that had stolen her life. Thoughts of revenge lit up inside her brain before she discarded them all. There was no longer a reason to worry about those things. She would be dead soon. Walking up to him, she idly noticed that the Bull was gone. Whether dismissed as unnecessary or faded due to it running out of prana she neither knew nor cared. The one who ruined her plans had no satisfaction on his face but wore a mask of regret but Altrouge could not bring herself to care.

"Finish it," she said walking up to him. He paused for a moment in response but ultimately didn't insult her by questioning her motives. Instead he strode forward up to her and examined her. Growing slightly irritated by how long she was taking Altrouge recalled something. "Here," she said taking out a vial full of that black liquid she had acquired so long ago and placing it in his hand. "Take this."

Pain entered his eyes and for a brief moment Altrouge felt some triumph before the feeling quickly disappeared into the abyss that was her chest at the moment. Still it seemed that giving him the vial was enough to clear up any thoughts on reluctance. In the next second he placed his hand over her head and after not more than three seconds, Altrouge Brunestud the Ninth Dead Apostle Ancestor died.

xxx

"Are you okay Shirou," Ishtar asked as the Magician examined the vial of black.

"I will be," he replied after a long few seconds. "I can't believe this is over. Man it's been a long night." He laughed a bit before glancing at the black vial. "I'm exhausted. I know Tiamat's still a problem but let's handle it tomorrow."

"Yeah, I'm also running on empty," Ishtar admitted fatigue after this painfully long night. "But where are we going to sleep," she gestured at the ruined city causing Shirou to wince. "There's not an overabundance of prime real estate around here."

"We could go to a hotel," Shirou suggested, having long overcome his fear of hotels. "But those might be overbooked. I'm sure we can just ask the church for…"

There was absolutely no warning. In one second Shirou was conversing and in the next he had been pushed away. He landed awkwardly and scrambled to his feet. Scanning the field to see what had hit him. He didn't have to look long to understand what had impacted him and the reason why. Standing in front of him was his beloved servant, fellow god and friend, with a hole through her chest that had almost certainly obliterated one of her cores.

"I'm sorry," Ishtar said although she although she had nothing to apologize for.

"Just hold on," Shirou said uselessly as Ishtar started to dissolve into prana. He stumbled forward but only reached a meter before his instincts screamed. He dodged backwards as an arrow landed at his feet and exploded into heat and light. Flung away by the force of the explosion Shirou could only endure as he hit the ground for the second time in the last minute. He could feel the burns all over his body and he instinctively cooled the water on his skin to take care of it.

Scrabbling to his feet, his heart lurched painfully for the second time in the last five minutes as Ishtar was nowhere to be seen. He looked at his hand with one remaining command seal. "Come to me Ishtar," he commanded but there was no response. The Command Seal did not disappear or even react in any manner. "Please come to me Ishtar," he begged, but it changed nothing. Suddenly his body was restrained and he found himself unable to move or teleport as another arrow tore through his left shoulder. He used his magic on the spell to [break] it and his head started to ache from the effort. His instincts screamed at him again as he sensed a person behind him but he was too late and he felt a knife stab into his spinal cord. Stumbling forward he fell to the ground.

Nolava II tried to fix his wounds but he had barely any prana after the fight and the headache and losses he suffered didn't make it any easier to concentrate. He summoned the remnants of water from his body in an attempt to destroy the few sources of mystical energy he could perceive. Locking onto his target he prepared to fire off his entire arsenal of H20 when all of a sudden he lost control of the liquid causing it to fall to the ground.

"I cannot allow you to do that Enki," a feminine voice called out and Shirou's attention was immediately grasped. Tired as he was, weak as he was, nobody should be able to overcome his control over water. Nobody except for another god of water.

"Hello Tiamat," Enki said in response trying to focus on her through the pain. "Nice weather we're having."

"I predict far more rains in the future," Tiamat responded. She was in the form of a lithe blond girl that looked quite a bit younger than him. She smiled at him. "Unfortunately I cannot have you interfering. Take a nap Enki," she said with an almost motherly tone of concern.

The next second he was crushed under thousands of tons of water and Shirou Inke died.

 **Author Note: This chapter took me forever courtesy of tremendously bad writers block. I think I'm going to write a chapter or two of one of my other stories before I go onto the final day of the Grail War.**

 **Indra Uzumaki: Absolutely nobody can fix the damage. About the virus, I was naturally skeptical but I logged off anyway because that bit was harmless. I work in a corporate environment so I'm naturally suspicious of emails like that.**

 **First Thaumaturgy: The bull at full power required two of the strongest heroic spirits put together and empowered and blessed by the gods wielding two of the strongest Noble Phantasm's ever to win. Ishtar's damn strong but when the bull was fully unleashed in Fate/Strange Fake it caused an 800 km wide hurricane.**


	66. Chapter 66

Manaka Sajyou skipped along up the stairs that lead to Ryuudou temple. To a bystander she would have looked like your average carefree child if not for to important considerations. Firstly the ground that she walked over was scorched and cracked with temperatures well over one hundred degrees. Anything to the west of the Mion had been obliterated by the two monsters that had fought barely ten minutes ago. An ordinary human, let alone a child, would have been burnt to death by the residual heat from the collision. The fact that this girl was able to live, even thrive, in this environment would instantly tip off any casual observer.

The second thing that would have informed anybody watching that she was not somebody to mess with would be the two people following behind her. Or at least they looked like people to a person that had never stepped foot in the moonlight world. To anybody who could sense prana in any capacity they lit up the night, outshining even the molten patches on the ground. One looked like a little girl with an appearance easily two or three years younger than the one she followed. A scar across her eye and the sheathed knives that hung around the back of her waist gave her a dangerous look that undermined her natural cuteness. She was garbed in a dangerously immoral outfit that wantonly displayed pale flesh and contrasted with her childish gait.

The other follower could not have been more different then his counterpart. Instead of fair skin his skin was far more tanned. Instead of being short, he stood nearly six feet tall. Instead of a childish demeanour, his eyes showed great wisdom and every movement of his was reserved and calculated. However in colour they were near identical as both of them wore black, although the man's garb was no longer pure black due to the blood that was constantly dripping from the corpse he held in his hand.

"Please don't drop that Karna," the young magus said turning to him as she skipped, only surface-level joy displayed in her eyes. "He's actually a very vital part of the next step." She halted as something occurred to her. "Or should I say it? Do corpses have gender?" she asked the two servants before the smile instantly dropped from her face and she doubled over clutching her head in pain. Despite the agony written on her face she remained silent throughout the whole ordeal and the two servants had no choice but to watch impotently as they were unable to affect anything. Karna despite his outwardly cold appearance clutched and unclutched his fists helplessly and the young girl ran up to her master hugging her and trying to comfort her.

"Thank you Jack," Manaka said after a moment. "I'm okay," she tried to comfort the younger girl. "It's just a bit of negative feedback." Her smile crawled back onto her face although it was noticeably dimmer. "I don't know why you're so angry," she said. "You're the one who wanted to actually kill him. No I don't understand how I'm being disrespectful," she spoke back boldly although there was a notable element of fear beneath her apparent calmness.

"Why do we need it," Jack replied, obviously referring to the corpse and Manaka clutched her head in pain again.

"Ah, Jack better not refer to the corpse disrespectfully," she said rubbing her forehead. "Or I'll have to give you a spanking."

Jack nodded quickly before she tilted her head as if waiting for an answer to her prior question.

"You remember the grail that we need," she said causing the other two servants to nod immediately. "It's very, very cursed. Don't get me wrong," she continued reaching down to pat Jack's head watching the young girl. "We're still going to use it to accomplish our goals, but some minor preparation needs to be done before we can fully activate it. To that end we need some help of our friend here," she said pointing to the corpse and very firmly dragging Jack's hand away when she tried to touch it.

"A false god has made its home in the grail," she further explained her point. "Even an imitation of a god would be hard to overcome at the best of times, but the fact that this god is composed of countless curses makes it an essentially impossible task. I'm not going to explain the theory to you," she said looking at Jack's face. "But basically it is nearly impossible to overpower a curse as the essence of a curse is in the subversion of something else. If you try to overpower it then the curse will just end up corrupting your power and making it its own. To overcome a curse you require some form of purifying energy. The problem is that this energy is nearly impossible to get nowadays."

Manaka pouted in a manner that would have been considered cute if it weren't for the environment. "I think I could possibly have overcome it with my skills," she said. "But if it were to overwhelm me that would be the end for me. Otherwise the only thing that would be able to get rid of the curse would be some legendary holy item or at least half of the entire church's exorcist's working hard for a few months. That's where he comes in," Manaka said gesturing to the corpse that was held by Karna. "He may look really average and not special at all, but that body contained the soul of Enki for seventeen years," Manaka said with a smile that was only half-fake. "Enki was basically the first god of exorcists. The body should have absorbed his essence for those seventeen years and turned into a natural purifier. If I had more time I would have used his body to craft some purifying mystic code instead," she said, wincing as she faced instant retaliation for Tiamat.

"He was truly a god," Karna said speaking up for the first time as he evaluated the dead body in his hands. "It was a worthy death for a god."

"Ambushed by us after defeating the killer of humanity and his vampiric mistress," Manaka stated. "By the way is there a reason why you aren't wearing your armour."

"My apologies," Karna said bowing his head slightly with remorse. "I know you put forth a lot of energy to retrieve it, but ever since I have taken it back it has not fitted correctly to me. I would rather not wear it unnecessarily due to that reason."

"That's fine by me," Manaka said although there was a noticeable pout on her face. "Jack you must not touch that," she said once again preventing Jack from touching the dead body. "You might then accidentally get purified and then who is going to help me finish the ritual."

Jack seriously nodded at her words and turned away from the body, sticking close to her and the two increased their pace swiftly coming to the cave mouth that marked the entrance to the location of the greater grail. Countless advanced bounded fields locked onto her presence as she approached before swiftly detecting the unique taste of her prana and relaxing and letting her and her companions through.

She had spent many days inside the cave laying protection magic in anticipation of the completion of the ritual. Her knowledge of magecraft was almost unparalleled in the world. In fact it could be said to be even more unparalleled as of half an hour ago when she managed to kill of one of her major competitors for that title. She snickered to herself but the genuine joy and pride faded quickly to be replaced by a hollow imitation. Striding through the caves she ignored the various automated defences that twinkled in hostility before quieting down. In a few minutes she arrived at the grail and she felt a bit of concern as she saw the bubbling tar like prana from the grail.

Even with all of her knowledge and power the grail still felt extremely oppressive. While she wouldn't be allowed to die if she touched the black ooze, she had the feeling that it would be unpleasant for her, more unpleasant then living her life with Tiamat inside her head anyway. Mentally comparing the contents of the cup from before their excursion to its current level she quickly came to the conclusion that they had noticeably increased in quantity. This wasn't unexpected however as a lot of servants had met their end tonight. Honestly if she hadn't personally expanded the capacity of the grail then the tool would have already overflowed by now spelling doom for Fuyuki, or more doom at least, she thought contemplating the hell that lay just outside.

"Is it lower than it should have been?" Manaka asked mentally tallying the servants that had been killed tonight.

"The grail was not built to hold the soul of a god," the authoritative voice made itself known in her head. Spoken in an unspeakable language and yet perfectly understood the very words seared themselves into the soul of Manaka.

"Throw him in," she said speaking to Karna. To his credit the hero hesitated for only a moment before chucking the corpse into the centre of the grail. The reaction was immediate and violent to the extent that it even shocked Manaka. As soon as the body touched the dark prana the contents of the grail started to sizzle and burn. Manaka whistled, Jack watched with open eyes and even Karna gave a nod of acknowledgement as the black liquid started to bubble and flow trying to leap out of the coffin. It was incredible to watch a mass of curses and prana try to escape like a deer in a lion cage but ultimately its meagre resistance amounted to nothing in the the end the black ooze burnt up and was replaced by shining gold prana as the corpse dissolved into the tainted energy and purified it.

"Excuse me master," Karna spoke up unusually as he stared at the sight of the now shining grail. "But couldn't his presence in the grail upset the ritual."

"I've checked him for magecraft and his soul has long departed his body," Manaka said somewhat callously. "The only danger right now is his friends that might arrive," she said before immediately moving to the side of the grail. "I'm sorry to trouble you," she continued while smiling somewhat ruefully. "But I'm going to have to ask the both of you to halt them for a bit. The grail's fully charged but seeing as we just killed the closest thing to the wish granting entity and the complexity of the wish it may take some time before I can get it properly working. I'm going to ask you to stall them for about thirty minutes. Think of it as holding out for enforcements."

"Is there no possibility we can win," Karna asked flatly.

"Almost none," Manaka replied cheerfully. "I'll try help if I can but I might be slightly busy on my own," she said while scribing down various incantations on the surface of the grail. "Don't worry though," she said cheerfully. "Once I complete the ritual there is no chance of victory for them. Then we can just lay back and enjoy the rewards."

An explosion rocked the cavern and Manaka felt the surge of prana from the trap at the entrance. "Go quickly," she said urging them on although such encouragement was no longer needed at this stage.

Karna nodded stoically, turning and leaving immediately to the source of commotion and Jack ran up to Manaka giving her a hug before she followed the Hero of Charity.

Manaka's hands continued moving, as they left the room performing complex alterations to the grail as she initiated dozens of different rituals at the same time, using the impossibly large amount of shining gold prana as a source for the changes she wished to enact. Tears started to run down her eyes as she continued working; never ceasing for a second as if her body was not under control of her mind.

"Yes, just a few more minutes," she croaked out as her face became increasingly wet. "Then we'll all get our rewards."

 **Author Note: Sorry for the almost unforgivably short chapter. Just trying to get back into the swing of things. I'll try to make them longer for the final stretch.**


	67. Chapter 67

Bare white feet barely sank into the puddles of molten ground beneath her as Arcueid Brunestud sprinted through the ruined land that was called Fuyuki. Her shoes had accidentally been destroyed when a moment of distraction caused her to step into a stream of magma and instantly melted. Behind her the other three followed in their mad dash towards the last seen location of the other battle. Arcueid had been satisfied when they had managed to bring down Strout without any severe losses. If Strout didn't have that damned sword she would have been able to kill him herself. As it was she had to rely on Satsuki's curse resistance and her heart had almost stopped when she saw the blade that she so despised nearly cleave her friend in half. In that instant she felt like tearing apart the world in order to finish off the murderer in front of her.

In the end she had held herself back and to her joy Satsuki had recovered and even received a power-up of some sort from absorbing the curses in the blade. Still even with her power-up Strout had put up a fight in the last few minutes of the battle. Steadily accumulating wounds until his body was barely holding together, his body rampaged around forcing all four of them to try and put him down, a task that took way too long for her liking. In the end only a few seconds after they killed him they noticed that the two monsters had stopped fighting.

Seeing the sudden disappearance of both of the forces of nature she had immediately charged towards the last location of the battle as an ominous feeling grew inside her heart. She went as the crow flies, trampling through pools of lava that sizzled under the constant oppressive rain and smashing through the few remaining structures if it would get her a second's advantage. Travelling like that she soon arrived at the last location that she had seen the two beasts duke it out. She started scanning the area with little success and then she vaguely noted that the other three had arrived behind her and she took a moment to make sure that the environment around them was still survivable. While Heracles was a servant and thus had a body that could handle adverse conditions and Satsuki had the ability to alter her biology to better adapt; Shirou's sister, despite all her power, was still human and thus lacked the ability to survive in this severe climate.

That taken care of; she leapt into the air, easily reaching a hundred metres and scanned the former battlefield for any signs of life. Worms gnawed in her heart until she caught a glimpse of something a short distance away and she abandoned her natural falling speed, instead choosing to kick off the air propelling her body like a falling star to that location. Cracking the blackened ground as she landed; she immediately rushed to the torn and blackened flesh that lay upon the ground like a coat of bloody moss. She let out an involuntary sigh of relief as she recognized the feel of the mystery to be that of a foe she tangled with many times before.

"So you got him Shirou," she said quietly to herself. The worry when she saw the bull disappear after Primate Murder had caused all sorts of dark rationalisations to scream through her brain. "What if Primate Murder had shrunk because Ishtar could no longer maintain the Bull? How could Shirou fight off the Beast of Gaia then? What if he was being picked off by the wolf monster as he lay there drained of prana?" These and many more thoughts squirmed up from the dark corners of her mind and she relaxed slightly before she resumed her search for her friends and lovers. Less than twenty metres away she found the perfectly preserved body of her 'sister' Altrouge Brunestud. Not a mark lay upon her body and Arcueid realized with some surprise that Shirou must have utilised the fourth directly on her, something he usually refused to do.

"He won," she said feeling the weight that the Dead Apostle Ancestors vanishing. With the death of Altrouge and her pet all of their enemies had either died or run. The constant tension of having to contend against those monsters had placed a heavy strain on her during this past week. Hah, she couldn't even believe it was only about a week since the grail war started. Every night so far had been constant high level fights to the death and Arcueid hadn't even realized how exhausted she was until now that it was over.

But this was no time to relax and so Arcueid set off to look for Shirou ignoring the gasps of those behind her she extended her senses to the surrounding landscape trying to sense any signs of prana expenditure. In retrospect that was quite a stupid idea she thought a second after she tried. The ground was absolutely soaked in mana and mystery and even more exotic energies as a result of the clash between the two titans. Honestly this was the most mana filled environment she had ever encountered; the whole town seemed to be brimming with the stuff. She was about to give up and look somewhere else when she felt something in the back of her mind. Whipping her head towards a spot several feet away she focused on the place that contained the most powerful, ancient mystery she had ever felt, and she had stood within a reasonable distance of Type Mercury in the past.

Water lay among the cracked ground in huge quantities forming puddles of such a size she was honestly surprised she hadn't seen them before. She frowned at the thought, the air of the town of Fuyuki, at least this side, was over one hundred degrees Celsius. Any normal water would have long boiled away and yet there was not even a sign of steam from this water. Touching it she brought some of the cool water to her lips and tasted salt. Her eyes hardened as she realised that there was only one saltwater deity in the whole of Fuyuki. Frantically she began to scour the land for any sign of Shirou and Ishtar. Despite her rushing it took her an agonizingly long few seconds for her to see it. The red pool.

Barely visible in the early hours of the morning when the sun had yet to peek over the horizon it filled up a room-sized crater in the ground. The smell was immensely familiar to Arcueid, although it was no longer accompanied by the manic desire. Arcueid sprinted towards the pool, kneeling down and stopped for a moment. This blood almost certainly was Shirou's. Well either that or somebody grabbed a bunch of people and bled them out in some sacrificial ritual. Honestly this alone wasn't enough to kill him. Her friend had a couple of years ago confided to her that it would require him to lose a literal lake's worth of blood before he bled out. The advantage of having an ocean inside him he said.

Still the sight was extremely worrying and so Arcueid dove into the pool. The crater opened up slightly as she went down and Arcueid couldn't help but despair as she passed twenty metres before coming to the end. She made a sweep of the rocky ground her despair abating only slightly when she realised there was no body. That was the end of the good news however.

Arcueid surfaced from the red pool to see her friend, Shirou's sister and the servant they acquired watching her. Satsuki had grown some vents or gills or something that constantly spewed cold air and Shirou's sister was standing a calculated distance away so that she could survive the environment.

"What's the news," Satsuki said smiling almost sinisterly despite the serious situation and Arcueid got the feeling that her latest power up may have messed her up a bit.

Arcueid solemnly brought out the two things that she had acquired; a golden sword with a crack down the middle and the handle for a revolver. Both unquestionably belonged to Shirou.

"There was no body," she said with some faint hope colouring her voice.

"Servants don't leave behind a body though," Satsuki replied that damnable smile finally fading from her face.

"Yeah," Arcueid replied as her heart constricted once more. She had grown very close to Ishtar in the short time that she knew her; she didn't think it was possible to sleep with somebody and not grow close, but Shirou was still her number one priority, followed closely by his servant she admitted.

"There are slight marks of blood leading away from the pool," Heracles spoke up his deep voice breaking Arcueid's contemplations. He was a short distance away crouched over inspecting the floor. Straightening out to his full height he turned towards Arcueid again. "His body was probably carried away."

"Then if they carried him away he's most likely still alive," Aoko said urgently. "We need to hunt down them and get him back."

"Wait," Arcueid said cutting off Shirou's sister. While she wanted nothing more than to get Shirou back right now, it was far too dangerous to go running in recklessly against a goddess. Right now without Shirou Arcueid had to keep the rest of the team together and stop them from throwing their lives away. "We need to have a plan."

"Well spoken," an unfamiliar voice made itself known and Arcueid whirled to see two new figures standing there. Neither of them was unfamiliar to the True Ancestor. The shorter one stood at five and a half metres with black hair and a womanly figure. Her delicate features were entirely offset by the bruises all over her exposed skin, the bloody bandages covering the left side of her face and her missing right arm. Narbareck the head of the burial squad and a firm favourite for the strongest human in the world looked like she had gotten six shades of shit kicked out of her.

The taller of the two was instantly familiar to Arcueid although she hadn't seen him for a long time. Standing over six feet tall and well-muscled despite his apparent age the Second magician's very presence demanded respect from all of those present. Red eyes signalled that despite his grey hair he had many years still left. Kishcur Zelretch Schweinorg could truly be called the most powerful vampire on the Earth not counting those honorary ones such as Type Mercury and the late Primate Murder. And yet despite having no wounds upon him his presence was diminished and there were traces of fatigue on his face.

"Grandfather," Arcueid responded with some surprise upon seeing the man that had helped her so much in her younger years. "You're here," she finished not knowing what to say. Questions about his presence, requests for assistance and concern about his state of being warred within her mind and she was only able to speak those words. Still he seemed able to understand her thoughts and he smiled faintly.

"Barely here," he said with some resignation. "This world had become an otherworld, a world for which destruction is inevitable. Cut off from the Great Tree Known As Time…" Zelretch looked as if he was going to go into more detail and then stopped shaking his head. "All the parallel dimensions are disappearing," he admitted. "This world has diverged so much that even the effects of the counterforce are disappearing from this world. Soon I will have to leave this world or lose my ability to use the Second. Even now my magic is weakening as we speak."

"What?" Arcueid said and she wasn't alone in saying it. She had felt a ray of hope upon seeing her honorary grandfather but that ray of hope was rapidly being covered up by black clouds.

"You didn't look weakened back in London," Narbareck piped back.

"That was not a situation where I could afford to hold back, Zelretch admitted wryly. "Gazamy broke free," he admitted upon seeing the curious looks of the four who had been in Fuyuki. "Half of London is basically gone," he continued with a look of pain on his face. "I was too slow to save them. At least the Clocktower won't come after you after all this," he said slightly gloomily.

"Wait, he wasn't an Ancestor," Aoko the only knowledgeable person piped up.

"Nope, just apparently very good at picking his time," Narbareck said. "The church is having its own problems with Stanrobe Calhin and yet they still asked me to come here. Do you know why?"

"We're wasting time," Satsuki pointed out cutting across any explanation that she would have given. "We need to rescue Shirou and every second we spend here chatting delays that goal."

Zelretch correctly read the situation and nodded immediately. "Take us to the location of the Greater Grail," he commanded the one eyed girl next to him, and his power and influence clearly showed when the proud Narbareck who didn't even belong to the same faction didn't deny him. For an instant her remaining eye glowed black and then the three of them found themselves standing in a wooded area just outside a cave mouth.

"Forced teleportation," Arcueid muttered to herself. Looking around she noticed that all four of them had been teleported as well and involuntarily shivered. The ability to teleport a True Ancestor without her permission bypassing her protection against magecraft was truly formidable. She gave an appreciative glance towards the raven haired girl; she truly could be called the strongest in the world. With her on their side rescuing Shirou would be that much easier.

Zelretch didn't pause at all, instead walking to the cave mouth. As soon as he approached he was forced to sidestep a bolt of purple light that narrowly missed him, flying past his head and causing and exploding over the derelict streets. He twisted his hand and Arcueid's fine senses detected waves of finely tuned prana leaving his hand and travelling into the tunnel. The waves impacted upon something invisible and intangible and Arcueid felt a brief surge of prana before the unseen formation collapsed.

"That bounded field is remarkably well made," Zelretch remarked. "Even I didn't notice it until a few seconds ago."

"It managed to block my teleportation," Narbareck explained. "Personally I think the ability to casually deactivate somebodies well-made bounded field from a distance on the fly is far more terrifying," Narbareck said casually. "We sure could have used you during the war."

Zelretch grimaced even as he continued to send out more carefully shaped waves of prana. "As to why I can disable these fields I can tell you that before this war I could claim that there were only three others with my level of knowledge in magecraft. So far one has died during the war, one has been trapped away for a long time and the other one has designed us these delightful traps. As for why I didn't help out during the war; I'm not omniscient, the barriers around this dimension were getting strange so I spent time investigating them and missed this. I'm not perfect."

"Grandfather can't I just go ahead," Arcueid piped up slightly dissatisfied with the time taken. "This magecraft shouldn't be able to harm me."

"No," Zelretch said shaking his head. "Most of them wouldn't be able to hurt you but hidden among them are definitely those who can. If you were to dash forward you would soon be entangled in curses and likely incapacitated. Damn this is too slow," he said to himself. "The level of mana around us is steadily rising. We don't have too much time." At this stage he had advanced nearly two dozen metres but the immense density of the traps hindered their speed.

A sudden flash in the darkness of the cave was their only warning and Zelretch reacted instantly. An opaque shield of green covered in strange runes srang up in front of the Wizard Marshall and Arcueid watched as multiple cracks splintered out from a single point with a sound like thunder. No break was given as in the next second that single point was joined by eight others. However even a shield thrown up by the Second Magician had its limits and in the next second a tenth impact shattered the shield like glass.

An arrow of flame pierced through the wall of green and Arcueid could feel the air start to combust from the intense heat, comparable to that of the bull being summoned, if contained in a far smaller area. Zelretch didn't move and in the next second with a flash of white light the arrow was gone and an explosion high in the atmosphere indicated the arrows likely destination.

"I'm not in the best condition either Schweinorg," Narbareck said although her voice betrayed no signs of fatigue. "Controlling space is hard at the best of times, let alone now."

"I am perfectly capable of redirecting those arrows myself," Zelretch responded calmly. "I'm not dead yet and I don't need you to treat me as if I am," he continued lowering his voice to a whisper that Arcueid barely oberheard it.

Those words immediately set off alarms in Arcueid's head piercing through her worry of Shirou. "Grandfather is expecting to die," the thought passed through her mind and refused to leave.

"That's the guy that Shirou told us about," Satsuki said pointing into the darkness of the cave where a faint figure could be made out. "Hey are you going to continue skulking in the cave or are you going to come out."

A glint of another notched arrow was the only reply and the collective frowned. The tunnel limited movement, making it impossible to flank the archer and combined with the multitude of bounded fields a true killing zone was created.

"He's stalling," Arcueid said out loud.

Narbareck turned to her and gave her a look that implied a lot about her belief in Arcueid's mental capacity. "Obviously," she said after a moment. "And the concentration of mana is rising every second we waste here."

"You still can't teleport us directly to the grail?" Zelretch questioned but it was clear from his tone of voice that he already knew the answer.

"The bounded field disrupting my teleportation has not dissipated," Narbareck replied back instantly.

"Then there is no easy way to do it," Zelretch said. "In less than half an hour the levels of mana will have reached the level present in the age of the gods and Tiamat will be able to manifest."

"Wait how did you know that?" Satsuki piped up. She didn't know that Zelretch was aware of the situation with Tiamat.

"Shirou phoned me and I emailed Zelretch," Narbareck said with a glare silencing her.

"Can't we collapse the mountain?" she asked directly not wanting to waste any more time.

"Without any access to the second Magic, I'm afraid it is impossible for me," Zelretch said. "The bounded fields protecting the grail are old and strong, not to mention that they may have a hostage."

"So the only way to get to the grail is to battle through the cave fighting the archer and coping with the effects of the bounded fields under a time limit," Arcueid clarified feeling impatience in her heart.

A nod was her only reply and thus Arcueid didn't wait anymore darting forward through the cave, Satsuki only a few steps behind her. Dozens of fiery arrows with the power to destroy a city block were fired without rest. She stomped her foot and the cave warped closing to cover her from the approaching light, but then she felt a rebound and the cave refused to move any further distorting back and leaving her exposed to the arrows of fire. Moving her arms Arcueid created miniature tornadoes around her hands in an attempt to reflect the arrows, unfortunately Arcueid's Marble Phantasm which could easily reflect missiles proved insufficient in these circumstances where there was no place to deflect them to.

An explosion in the relatively narrow corridor blinded everyone momentarily and when the spots cleared from their eyes Arcueid stood their mostly unharmed with her flesh only slightly seared. Satsuki had dodged behind her at the last moment, using the True Ancestors superior body as protection against the force of the fiery explosion. However that wasn't entirely why the two held refusing to advance. A wall of smoky mist engulfed the corridor obscuring their adversary and surrounding them preventing the few from even seeing each other. Arcueid clicked her fingers trying to blow the smog away with a gust of wind but it resisted, remaining there stubbornly despite her encouragement.

"It's acidic," Satsuki said her voice steady, almost bored, despite the dangerous situation. "Unfortunately acidic mist is equivalent to Shirou getting warmed up for a spar. Arcueid there's another servant in here; it seems to be a small kid."

"How can you tell?" Arcueid asked curiously. The mist seemed to warp her senses, turning the straight cavern into something almost eldritch in layout. She couldn't even see her friend, let alone any hidden enemies. The mist was lit up with fire and she stepped forward facing the arrows head on preventing any of them from hitting the more vulnerable members of their group. She felt a familiar hand on her shoulder and her friends voice whispered in her ear, even as she put her body on the line against fiery death.

"I have sonar," Satsuki explained causing Arcueid's head to whip towards her direction in amazement, or at least the direction she thought she was in. "I'm going to try and hunt down that mini-servant. Can you distract him for me?"

"Fucking how," Arcueid said, the pressure causing her to slip into Shirou's vocabulary. "I can't even see him."

"What is the exact location of the Archer," Narbareck said, her voice carrying clearly through the otherwise muffling nature of the fog.

"Twenty three metres at a bearing of 330 degrees," Satsuki responded after a moment of thought.

"Make it two," Zelretch said his voice barely recognizable through the fog.

Suddenly a sound of impact and a massive surge of prana made itself known to the True Ancestor even through the nigh impenetrable fog. At the same moment she could feel the floor she stood on shatter slightly and heard a crack of displaced air as Satsuki moved past her and into the mist. The next few minutes were harrowing as Arcueid countered the seconds while occasionally blocking incoming fire arrows and even one of Heracles arrows. The unseen dance of death continued until it was stopped by a sickening crack that rang out unhindered by the swiftly fading mist.

Satsuki stood there and her hands held the form of a tiny girl in some severely inappropriate clothes that was swiftly fading into golden prana. Her neck was bent at an awkward angle and the light in her eyes quickly faded. Suddenly Satsuki had to turn, throwing up her arms to block a hail of flame that scorched her clothes, burned her flesh and even torched her bones. The Archer paid heavily for this and Arcueid moved forward to assist as she Heracles abandoned the bow and smashing his fists down into the body of Karna. While each blow didn't seem to be able to finish him off, the combined weight of his punches drove the opponent down to the floor and he forcibly kept him there and unable to get off any arrows. Or at least that was the plan.

"Bramastra Kundala," he choked out through a mountain of blood and in the next second the world was bathed in a fiery hell. The massive explosion caused the cave to collapse and Arcueid put on the speed even running into the fireball in order to avoid the falling rocks. The white light grew blinding once again and Arcueid forced her eyes open even as they burnt and regenerated in order to dodge the collapsing space. The explosion was over within seconds, although it felt like an age and when it cleared there was only dust and darkness.

"Is everybody okay," Zelretch said as he snapped his fingers and a ball of light formed above his hand and illuminated the darkness of the cavern. He looked slightly worn out but there were no obvious wounds on his body and he was frantically dismantling the bounded fields

"He got away," Heracles said with frustration in his voice. "But I'm unharmed."

"I'm a bit bloody," Arcueid said lamenting the damage done to her nice clean shirt. "But nothing a quick breather won't fix. Where are the others?"

"That Satsuki girl was buried beneath the rubble," Zelretch said not bothering to slow down. "Aoko and Narbareck are stuck on the other side."

"Can they not teleport across?" Heracles asked as he walked next to the oldest of the group. "It worked well on me beforehand."

"If they could then they would have done it already," Zelretch said picking up speed as he dismantled the bounded field with unparalleled speed. "I'm not intimately familiar with the mechanics of her method of teleportation but she may require line of sight or she may be too exhausted for further teleportation."

"It's actually the last one," Aoko said as she appeared next to them in that very moment. "She said that's her last one and she's done."

Zelretch shrugged and was about to speak when a rustling from the passage occupied his attention. His gaze grew firm and he summoned another ball of light to his hand and threw it into the darkness. From the inky depths of the cave crawled a monster. It was akin to a centaur, it had the upper half of a man, but everything from the waist down instead of being horse like, it was like a scorpion. Its bottom half was black in colour and it stood two metres in height. As they watched it was joined by a second and then a third and then more and more crawled into the light until the passage was swarming with them.

"Phantasmal beasts," Zelretch said as he continued to dismantle the field. "Don't let me stop you from wiping them out.

"I'll go ahead then," Aoko said stepping forward and incanted a swift chant, her circuits hummed in intensity and a dozen magic bullets smashed into the creature knocking it back a few paces. She frowned and then a second barrage smashed into the creature destroying the head. "Their upper bodies are weaker," she said as the remainder charged enraged at the death of their comrade.

Arcueid took her advice and stepped forward to meet the rush of the oncoming scorpion men. Tails whipped forward at supersonic speed and she barely managed to dodge the unfamiliar movements. She focused on one and launched a punch at his chest. Its body was like steel, but Arcueid's fists had long surpassed a force that could be described by humans and the creature let out a sickening wet gasp as it died. Out of the corner of her eye she was able to see Heracles launch wave after wave of arrows that tore into the bodies of the phantasmal beasts. To her right Aoko fired plenty of magic bullets into the creatures thinning out the herd. Whenever they reached her she would launch a kick or two, retreat and then fire off more and more magic bullets.

After only a couple of minutes they had exhausted their reserves and Arcueid could take a breath as she withdrew her hand from the chest cavity of the last of the scorpion man and dropped the heart in her hand unceremoniously on the floor. The bodies of the creatures littered the floor and Arcueid could count about three dozen of them in total.

"Fodder," Heracles spoke up saying what was on everybody's thoughts. "They were nothing but a momentary distraction."

Arcueid nodded in agreement and opened her mouth to say something when she was cut off. Mana surged around them catapulting into heights that she had scarcely felt before. The sheer volume of it was astonishing and unlike when it was used in a spell there was no purpose, no focus no use for the mana. Arcueid felt as if she was a fish that had lived on land all her life and now was thrown for the first time into the water. The sheer level of mana rose until it reached a crescendo and then it underwent a qualitative change, from mana into something else.

"True Ether," Zelretch said and his countenance grew dark. "All the bounded fields have broken down, they no longer care." Arcueid watched as he clenched and unclenched his fists and then he exhaled. "Well let's go pay the piper."

"We can still win," Aoko said and there was steel in her voice.

"We need to rescue Shirou," Arcueid said. "He'll have some way of winning. He always has in the past."

Zelretch laughed and then he relaxed. "My magic has gone," he admitted. "This world has become a lostbelt, a point of ultimate divergence from any other possible outcome. I'm not going to explain it right now, but rest assured that I'm as committed to this dimension as possible. Come on granddaughter," he said patting Arcueid's head as he used to do long ago. "Let's see it through to the end."

Aoko nodded her determination and Heracles started to walk in forward through the now defenceless cave. Infuriatingly it was less than thirty metres until they came to the opening of the cave illuminated by golden light. If they had reached the spot just a minute or two ago they could have probably finished it. If it wasn't for the scorpions they would have reached the grail was the bitter thought that ran through all their heads.

A young blonde girl sat cross-legged with her eyes closed on the ground in front of the grail and all four instinctively realised that she was the last master. The Archer that gave them so much trouble in the way in stood their upright next to her but he made no move to attack them. There was no sign of Shirou, despite how much Arcueid frantically looked.

"Where is Shirou?" she yelled at the pair at the top of her voice, but neither responded. "Where is he?" she repeated stalking forward.

" _Hold,"_ the girl said speaking words that she could understand in a language that she couldn't comprehend. Instantly Arcueid found that she was unable to make a single movement. " _Enki's avatar has been destroyed,"_ she finished and Arcueid found herself knowing that what she said was true.

"I'll kill you," Arcueid screamed out, instantly enraged, and yet she was powerless to move a muscle. She could feel herself going mad, but she still could not slip into bloodlust and for the first time ever she cursed her clear-headedness.

She could only watch as horns burst from the head of the little girl causing blood to drip from the forehead. Her eyes opened and turned from blue to rose red and she brought her hands to the top of her head and in elegant yet horrifying movement ripped the skin off her body. Like a butterfly emerging from a cocoon a beautiful woman emerged from the blood and flesh of a forsaken girl.

But Arcueid was seeing any of this. Her rage dissipated and for the first time in a long time she cried. "Shirou," she said while standing in front of the rebirth of a goddess. "Shirou I'm so sorry."

xxx

Far away to the extent that distance could not even be measured a teenager's room sat. There was nothing particularly unusual about it. It was decorated in shades of ocean blue and had a variety of board games and a single TV. A cat's bowl sat next to a bookshelf containing various esoteric subjects and a phone was charging on the bed stand. Speaking of the bed stand; it was made of reddish wood and was, rather appropriately, next to a bed. The bed was King sized with brown covers and had only one occupant.

Red eyes snapped open and the occupant woke up.

 **Author Note: Today it's been a year since I've started writing White Ink. Can you believe at one point I believed I would be finished in February/March. How's that for schedule slip. Anyway this story was originally formed when I asked myself, "Hey if Gilgamesh hates the gods, why did he name his ultimate weapon after them?" And now I'm 250 000 words later.**

 **So I'm nearly finished. Hopefully before Christmas if the schedule slip isn't too bad. So now I think would be the best time to ask for a favor. Can you tell me what you liked and hated about the story so I can improve any later stories I write. I mean you stuck with it for far too many chapters so there must be at least something good about it. Unless you're just skipping to the end right now and are very confused.**


	68. Chapter 68

He sat up straight rubbing his hand through his scarlet hair feeling an unusually utter lack of residual sleepiness. The bed in which he lay was comfortable and familiar to his body and he could instantly tell that the mattress was the exact one that he had awoken upon for the last few years. Looking around the room he could tell that it wasn't the only thing familiar. Every single thing in the room stood exactly like he had left it in the morning, or the prior morning he should say as he was fairly certain that midnight had long been passed. While the accustomed setting would normally set him at ease, he had not forgotten that he had recently stood in the ruins of his house. Whatever this was it was not his home.

"Somebody's playing tricks here," he said to himself, almost hoping for an immediate response. "Well I'm probably not going to figure out anything while I'm in bed.

He got out of his bed, casting an eye around the room once again to see if he could spot any imperfections, a task that proved futile. Walking to his closet he decided that firstly he wanted to change out of his striped pyjamas, there was no way in hell he was going to fight in them. Besides the humiliation they were a gift from Arcueid and she would most likely sulk if they got ruined. Opening his closet his eyes grew wide as he saw something that wasn't like his room. Instead of his fairly standard, fashionable and modern clothes he was confronted by a wardrobe filled with garments of silk, linen and wool. At the top of his closet were many golden accoutrements that surrounded a similarly golden crown with two horns attached.

"Huh," he said as nostalgia thrummed in his heart. In under a minute he had changed into the garments of a high priest. Atop his head the brilliant gold crown contrasted against the darker blue of his outfit. Walking over to a mirror hung up on the side of the room he took a long at his appearance noting that the scales that had appeared sporadically on his face and hands now fully covered his body giving him a shimmering ethereal appearance.

"Well it's an odd look, but I can pull it off," he muttered to himself, fully aware of the benefits of being a deity of fertility and masculinity. "Now for the most important part," he said walking to the window. A quick glance outside indicated a perfectly normal dawn in the city of Fuyuki, with no signs of life in the streets. He felt for his circuits and what he found instead staggered him.

The high quality circuits that he had been so proud of all of his life were gone, but what replaced it was even more fearsome. His already large pool of Od that had grown, no grown was too mild a term, it had exploded far past its original amount. With some slight amusement he became aware at the moment that the amount of life-force that he had within his soul exceeded the grail, the object that so many had fought over. But in the end wasn't it right for a god to be at least that powerful. He could feel the enormous weight of his soul, a vast freshwater ocean, strong and ready to emerge from the fragile earth and provide springs of pure water to good and a destructive flood to evil.

Utilising a fraction of a fraction of a percentage of his Od he created a ball of water, a metre in diameter and floating two metres above the ground, with less effort than it takes to breath. He accessed his magic and with a quick thought made the ball of water [hot] [cold] [dark] [light] [loud] [quiet] [sharp] [blunt] [hard] [soft] [light] [heavy] [invisible] [intangible] [poisonous] [venomous]. With but a thought he removed the ability for the water to move forward in [time] and with another thought he removed the ability for the water to experience [death] and with one last thought he removed the ability for the water to [exist].

His head was clear and light as he looked at the empty space where the water used to be. Not even the slightest onset of a headache that he got for changing the concepts that made up the foundation of the World. In the end it was wondrous what you could do when you were no longer restricted by the human brain.

"I died," he said to himself remembering oceans of water that crushed his body breaking his bones and shredding his muscle, water seeping into his body and rupturing his organs as he tried to muster a defence while completely off guard and low in prana. "Tiamat killed me," he said remembering the god who mercilessly executed him. "Then where am I now. Obviously not on the World anymore or I wouldn't be able to access my power," Shirou, no Enki mused. While the two of them were virtually the same person in heart and mind, Shirou was not a god and Enki was. With the destruction of Shirou's body he found it unlikely that he could go back to being Shirou for a while then.

Ishtar was… He didn't want to think about Ishtar right now. She wasn't dead of course; an imitation of a famous hero did not have anywhere close to enough power to kill a god. No in the end her link to the World was severed and she was forced back to the Reverse Side of the World. He would think under most circumstances that he would go to the same place but this certainly didn't feel like the reverse side of the world.

His eyes drifted towards the sole door in the room. His instincts told him that beyond that lay the answers to all of his questions and so after double checking the state of his body and magic and finding them impeccable he moved towards the exit to his room with purpose. Sliding down the handle he found the door to be unlocked as per usual.

"This better not be a void with random objects floating in an eerie fashion," he said feeling some small bit of amusement despite the terrible situation. "I don't think my heart could take something so cliché."

"How is this then?" the musical voice hit his ears at the same time as his eyes feasted upon the beautiful girl in front of him. Red eyes sparkled as she smiled mischievously at him with such beauty that she could have stopped the heart of most males. Truly Gilgamesh was amazing for resisting her despite the obvious threat of death. There were many men that would have considered their life a very worthwhile trade-off for just a night with Ishtar. "What do you think of the décor," she said pointing to the intricacy of the work of art that he found himself upon.

"Blue is my favourite colour," he admitted as he looked upon the walls that were glazed with the colour of lapis lazuli. The golden animals that were depicted in the mural were nigh perfect and Enki wondered if any gods had assisted in making sure that the wall created in their honour was flawless. Still he didn't care much for these ostentatious displays then and he certainly didn't care for them now.

"The fact that you chose to wear that specific face now is really pissing me off," Shirou said suddenly while still looking away from the girl who spoke to him.

"I was told that a familiar face sets people at ease," the being wearing Ishtar's face said frowning slightly as she did so, an act that didn't mar her beauty in the slightest.

"It depends on a lot of factors," Enki pointed out as he pointedly stared straight at Ishtar's Gate. "I would be happy right now to see the real Ishtar. Seeing a copy of her face just reminds me of the circumstances in which we were separated. "

"Having her vessel destroyed," the incomparably beautiful woman said. "That would barely affect her. You more than anybody else would know how tough a god actually is. After all wasn't your body destroyed by a goddess who should have been long dead?"

"You know I've been thinking about that," Enki mused to himself, ignoring for now the fact that his fellow conversationalist was still wearing the face of his friend. "I think that girl must have had some connection to the Akashic Records. And somehow Tiamat used that connection to manifest herself inside the poor girls head."

"What was she doing in the Root anyway," the charming mouth of Ishtar formed those words causing Enki to take a glance at the speaker and then just as swiftly move away. "Shouldn't she be in the Reverse Side of the World?"

"You have to remember that she died," Enki replied as if it would be obvious. "When she died her body and soul was thrown into imaginary number space. Trust me none of the gods would have liked to risk the chance that she would meet them on the Reverse Side. It would not be a stretch to believe that from there her soul returned to Akasha as all souls are wont to do eventually, except as a god she can retain her memories and identity. From there she must have used that girl's connection to Akasha as a conduit to influence her and in future to enter the world."

"I think that's a bit of a stretch in logic," his companion said as she shook her head. "But I can't think of a better explanation. By the way she's already entered the world," his companion said as she leaned against the Ishtar gate casually, an act made irresistibly seductive by the body that she was wearing. Unfortunately he didn't have any time whatsoever to appreciate the beauty of his favourite goddess.

"What, are you serious," he said reflexively before he bit down his disbelief. If she wasn't serious then she wouldn't have told him. Despite her bad habit of taking annoying forms, the person in front of him was not in the habit of telling untruths. "Damn what perfect timing," he said to himself realizing that not only did Tiamat catch him off guard when there were no more vampires to interfere but that she could immediately manifest into the world without long preparation.

"Can you show me her," Enki said turning towards his acquaintance.

In response she nodded once and pointed to the sky where the bright blue of the heavens was being replaced by an overhead view of an exceedingly familiar town, if a lot worse for wear. Before his eyes Enki watched in trepidation as the water of the Mion as well the sea that surrounded Fuyuki turned black.

"The Primordial Sea," the charming voice of Ishtar dragged Enki's attention away for a moment. He nodded in agreement before looking back at the screen in time to wince as he saw something he hadn't seen for a long time.

"Girtabilu," Enki said as he watched a massive scorpion man emerge from the black mud in a manner reminiscent of a Godzilla movie. He easily towered over the remaining skyscrapers of Fuyuki and Shirou winced at the thought of the damage they could do.

"Bad memories?" his companion inquired.

"Never fought him," Enki immediately rebutted. "He was one of Tiamat's eleven horrors that she used in her war against us, but I had already slain a primordial deity by that point so I was tired and refused to participate in that conflict. I've only met the descendants long after the war and that was only smaller domesticated ones. I mean look at that size. He's nearly as big as Gugalanna."

"He's not the worst though," her companion said and Enki turned to look only to jump back at the new sight. Arcueid was standing before him in her standard jersey and skirt. "Really Alaya," Enki said shaking his head. "Is now the time?"

"If not now, then when Enki," Alaya said shaking Arcueid's head. "This world's become a lostbelt. I might as well tease you now while I still have the opportunity." The mood died a swift death as Enki pondered the implications. "It will be a few centuries at the least before this world gets its own Alaya," Alaya continued despite the bombshell she dropped. "I assume that since you've taken such an interest in this world you'll show my replacement the ropes.

The god nodded to the incarnation of humanity making a silent promise to himself to do just that if they survive the next day. He looked up at the sky and gently took control of the magic that Alaya used. A few seconds of trial and error allowed him to understand and move the view from Fuyuki to the wider world and allowed him to see that his true fears had come to pass. Fuyuki was by no means an isolated incident, as the black mire that had infected its water sources had spread throughout the wider world, until no blue could be seen from the surface. That was a lie, he thought immediately as the lakes and rivers that divided the landscape, all freshwater, remained clear. His domain remained mercifully untainted by the saltwater goddess.

Still he winced as he realised the damage done to the earth's ecosystem by the goddess. Even if only the top layer of the oceans were infected by Tiamat, countless fish species would have just gone extinct. Not to mention ocean dwelling mammals and birds which are dependent on those food sources. Even humans would have taken a knock due to the sheer number of people who depend on the bounty of the ocean. Lucklily he was one of the few gods that would actually have the power to fix the current situation. Unfortunately now was not the right time. He would have to grit his teeth and wait.

"So what are you waiting for?" the incarnation of humanities' will to survive asked him. "Surely you must have some plan to turn the tables on that goddess. Surely the great Lord Enki isn't afraid."

"Not for myself," Enki replied. "Hey Alaya, you're still connected to the vast majority of humans. Can you tell me who Tiamat has summoned so far?"

"Well you've seen Girtabilu," Alaya began as her face morphed into Arcueid's concentration look, a truly cute sight. "Basmu and Musshussu are rampaging through North America and have been engaged by the Canadian and United States armies. Usumgallu has wiped out several settlements in Africa, although thankfully no large population centres have been hit. Kusarikku has attacked Beijing and is currently being fought by the Chinese army. Musmahhu is slowly invading the European Union although no lives have been lost to that creature."

"Lazy snake takes a while to warm up," Enki said in explanation. "Eventually it will be as destructive as the others."

"That's all I've seen so far," Alaya said smiling in that contented expression that Arcueid always had. "The others are either avoiding humanity or have not entered the field yet."

"Likely the latter," Enki responded instantly. "They were birthed by Tiamat for the sole purpose of destruction. While posterities of their species can be reasoned with or confined, with those deadly forbearers there is no room for negotiation or compassion. Either you destroy them or they will end you. So that means that six are currently summoned. In total there are twelve beings that Tiamat will summon," Enki said looking serious. "The eleven monsters will require all of the Worlds power to combat, but the very existence of the last one is the largest threat to the human race."

"Kingu," Alaya said simply and Enki felt some gratification that he was standing next to somebody who was thinking on the same wavelength.

"Yes, Kingu's blood was originally used to create the human race. I'm afraid of what effects his presence could have on humanity. He may be unable to die as long as humans are alive, or the World might reject humanity due to his presence killing the species off, or nothing could happen at all. That's why as soon as he appears I will immediately kill him."

"And how are you going to get back?" Alaya asked him. "Tiamat accessed the world through her connection with the girl. While it's possible for you to survive in the atmosphere of the world even without a nifty body you still can't pierce through the textures of the world."

"Are you okay?" Enki said for the first time looking at his face-stealing friend in concern. "You're a lot slower than normal Alaya. Is something wrong?"

"Enki, I'm literally disappearing from this world," Alaya said with some exasperation. "Would it help if I started turning translucent and fading away?" she asked adopting a Cheshire Cat's grin. In a second she shed Arcueid's body and revealed her own. Her original form was composed of trillions of appearances, and her body flickered through all of them with an intensity and speed that left any single one from being able to be discerned. "I'm barely here at all, there's no way I can devote any significant computational power to any of your plans," she with a thousand voices.

"Very well," Enki said. "To summon somebody to the world you need an anchor and some power. That's pretty much the only requirement," he said as he grinned. "And when I left the World not all of me passed over."

"I see," Alaya said, and the multitude of voices that made up her speech all seemed to all convey skepticism at once. "Do you think that aspect will ever aid you?"

"Yes," Enki replied without hesitation. "While we may be at odds with each other," he said ignoring Alaya's disbelief. "In the end, when you get down to it, we'll both always give our all to save humanity. That's what the name Enki means. That's what the name Ea means. For now Arcueid, Satsuki, everybody, please survive until then."

xxx

In the wreckage of a torn city amongst melted stone, craters the size of caverns and black fog, as the black mud evaporated under the intense heat polluting the air, the ruins of a house were barely visible. In that carcass of a house well-lived in sat a cylindrical pillar in a pristine condition, unaffected by the madness around it. Slowly it began to spin.

 **Author Note: Ugh, this chapter kicked my ass. No fighting, just a lot of talking and being forced to delve into, and take liberties with, the deepest aspects of both Fate and** **Mesopotamian lore.**


	69. Omake

"So why am I doing this again," Satsuki said as she adjusted the green elf uniform that Shirou had all but forced upon her. She was sitting down on a chair in a room full of Christmas decorations and general good cheer.

"Well its Christmas," Shirou said as he pointed to his own Santa Claus outfit. "How else would you dress?" He sat opposite Satsuki helping himself to a cookie from a plate on the table between them.

"Firstly I don't celebrate Christmas," Satsuki started. "In fact a lot of Japanese people don't. Secondly why did I get chosen to do this? Thirdly why are we doing this anyway?"

"Because statistically most of the people reading this are American," Shirou started to rebut breaking the fourth wall for the first time of many this chapter. "Secondly its Arcueid's Birthday so she gets off and Ishtar left immediately and is technically dead at this point, or at least put away on a bus. Thirdly the author was asked a few times to do various omakes and refrained because he tried and he couldn't make them funny."

"So what's changed," Satsuki said stealing one of Shirou's cookies.

"Absolutely nothing," Shirou repeated. "And with that we'll go onto our first omake titled 'What really happened to the True Demon.'

xxx

Out of all the places in the Reverse Side of the World Avalon was the friendliest towards human life. The sky was always ocean blue with only a small splattering of clouds and the great sea of emerald grass stretched forever only interrupted by island of flowers that lay about nurtured by the gentle caress of the sun.

"This is horrifically boring," Sir Francis Drake said aloud as she lay beneath a tree. An apple fell from the tree, but Drake proved herself Newtons superior in the understanding of basic physics and caught it before it impacted with her head. Biting into it she wished desperately for anything to happen that would disrupt the mundanity of her life.

The seconds ticked away as she thought that but nothing failed to materialise. Frowning she got up and looked around the other side of the tree. Scanning the horizon she frowned in annoyance. Normally when those thoughts hit something would immediately go wrong and ruin (improved greatly) her day. Whether it was pirates or a rival fleet or a free-for-all battle on the moon something would happen. So she waited for a few minutes of her timeless existence before she relaxed. It would seem that today there…

An explosion of pure magical energy originated from the other side of the tree and she turned just in time to see the trunk of her resting before it impacted upon her face. Spitting the wood out of her mouth she got her first look at the monstrosity that had disrupted her peaceful life.

"That is a face only a mother could love," Drake said whistling. The creature sort of reminded her slightly of those chimera things that she saw when she was sailing the ocean in a race against other famous pirates to track down the Holy Grail. Only the creature was uglier to an incomparable degree. Whichever god created this abomination ought to have its licence revoked.

The creature turned towards the legendary pirate glaring at her with bloodthirst and insanity in its eyes. It took one menacing step towards her and Drake readied her flintlocks before the thing collapsed on the ground groaning weakly.

"Are you alright," Drake asked slightly miffed that the fight that she anticipated was so underwhelming.

"Raargh," the creature said struggling to its feet weakly before lunging towards her. Drake shot it in the end and it collapsed backwards onto the ground where it squirmed a bit before getting up again. Drake shot it again but it resisted the bullet so Drake shot it repeatedly until it once again hit the deck.

"I have to say I'm a little disappointed," Drake said as she unloaded round after round of pistol fire into the weakened beast.

"It's to be expected really," an unwelcome voice announced the presence of a white robed white haired effeminate man.

"Oh Merlin you're here," Drake said acknowledging the existence of the flirtatious magus. "Have you met our new guest?" Drake stopped firing for a moment and the creature leapt up only to be hit by a cannonball and sent flying into the tree, tearing up another portion of the garden of Avalon.

"It's to be expected," Merlin said smiling. "Avalon is a place for humans. A creature such as this one can barely survive here. If we left it for too long it would probably expire on its own. Still to be mailed a Demon. Morgan must be getting creative with her Christmas presents."

"It's not Christmas though," Drake said before almost an as afterthought she bombarded the convulsing form of the Demon.

"It's Christmas somewhere," he said ignoring Drake's look of disbelief. "Hey look there's my liege," he pointed out before he went very, very quiet and his face turned stiff.

The cause of his abrupt change was the presence of King/Queen Arthur. Drake had no idea why he/she wasn't a man. However she found herself in no position to talk considering her own mutilation of her legend, or should she say his legend.

"What is happening here," he/she said his/her voice sharp and his/her eyes steely." The effect was however, utterly ruined by the cat's whiskers that had been drawn on his/her face.

Merlin shot Drake a look of exasperation as he desperately tried to keep his facial expressions under control and Drake just smirked in response. The legendary king was a surprisingly deep sleeper and Drake was a pirate, which meant that she could be stealthy when she wasn't drunk or lazy.

"A demon got in your highness," Merlin said in a flat voice, containing not a hint of amusement. "Could you perhaps finish it off? The bugger appears to be quite resilient."

The once and future king nodded immediately drawing Excalibur and firing a golden blast at the wildly convulsing Demon. As soon as the beam hit the creature evaporated into nothingness under the holy light of the sword.

Arthur nodded in satisfaction before he/she turned towards the pair. "Is something the matter," he/she asked. "You're behaving very oddly."

"Everything's fine," Merlin said and Drake just nodded in response. In the end he/she just shot them another sceptical look before he/she left. As soon as she was out of earshot both Merlin and Drake burst into laughter.

"That was brilliant," the Magus of Flowers commented. "Now if you'll excuse me I have to go top that. Farewell." With those words his body faded out of sight and Drake was once more alone.

"That was anti-climactic," the legendary pirate said letting out a sigh. She looked forlornly at the death site of the demon and that's when her sharp eyes made out a golden glint. Moving towards the potential treasure she reached down and dug out the object that was partially buried in the ground. It was a magnificent golden sheath, a bit on the tacky side but Drake liked gaudy things like that.

"Maybe this wasn't so disappointing after all," she said pocketing her newly found treasure.

xxx

"So that's where it got to," Shirou said wincing slightly. "I'm probably going to receive a strongly worded letter from Alaya about that, something to the extent of 'don't pollute mankind's utopia with Demons.'"

"Humanities will to survive uses the postal system," Satsuki asked incredulously as she sipped from her cup of egg nog.

"Nobody uses the postal system," Shirou looked at his companion with the faintest amounts of scorn in his voice. "When I screw up she sends a Counter Guardian over to hand me the message. It's always Emiya due to the fact that he annoys me, Alaya always gives him janitorial work and the author can't be arsed to think to open up Typemoon wiki and search for the name of another counter guardian."

"Anyway," Satsuki said putting down her egg nog. "We still have to do the one thing that is compulsory in all omakes for a story featuring an alternate Shirou."

"Have him summoned in the Holy Grail war to display the omake version of a stomp-fic," Shirou said as he finished off his own egg nog. Nine dressed as a reindeer quickly appeared inside the room and replaced the empty glasses with full ones.

"Precisely," Satsuki said smiling. "Our next omake is titled 'A Holy Grail War in Three Hours or Your Money Back."

xxx

Enki or Shirou Inke as he sometimes went by was standing in [spoiler] watching the [spoiler] with [spoiler] by his side taking a nap against a [spoiler]. It had already been [spoiler] since the Holy Grail War had ended and he was really enjoying the [spoiler]. Suddenly a voice appeared in his head beckoning to him and he smelt the unmistakeable smell of space-time magic. So either he was being summoned to a different world or Zelretch was trying to prank him again. Shirou had the absolute best luck when it came to summoning. He had already been summoned to defeat a demon king three times, kill a hero two times, liberate a species of humans from a dragon, and liberate a species of dragons from humans. Hell he had even been summoned as a familiar once. Still it was to his surprise that he heard the voice of Rin performing bog standard words from the servant summoning ritual.

"Oh wow am I being summoned," Shirou said quietly so as not to wake up [spoiler]. It was unlikely to be a summoning from his world due to [spoiler]. He found himself growing excited at the prospect of experiencing a normal Holy Grail War. Focusing on strategies to take down the various servants and winning the Holy Grail. Maybe this time he could properly participate in the games without having to worry about Vampires and Mesopotamian goddesses and [spoiler]. Just him and six other servants duking it out for an omnipotent wish granting cup that was actually [spoiler].

"Take me away standard summoning ritual," Shirou said as the feeling of foreign mana overwhelmed him and he appeared above the Tohsaka mansion at a speed. "Huh," Shirou said to himself as he crashed through the roof only to land on the couch in the Tohsaka's living room. It was the weirdest feeling being confined to a class. Like wearing really tight pants, except instead of the blood flow being cut off it was his abilities that were cut off instead. He felt weaker and his meagre sword skills had gone to shit as was the case with almost all Casters.

"How did she fuck that up," Shirou said whistling to himself. "Did she stand in the circle or put a fridge in it or something. I mean what the hell." Shirou was losing confidence about Rin's ability to win the Grail War after all, but he supposed it didn't matter after all. He could win the War with or without his master. So why take the chance was the thought that popped into his head. Footsteps grew closer to the room and so Shirou made a snap decision pumping to prana into the Emiya crest, he watched as inch by inch the door slowly opened and then he moved. Leaping up to the ceiling he made his feet and hands [sticky] he avoided the young magi's gaze and then swooped down behind her casting [sleep] as he did so.

Catching her body he let time resume but moved swiftly to put her to bed. She would awake at seven o' clock as she usually did so he had at most four hours in order to win the Grail War so he wouldn't have to deal with her. Laying her in bed he considered his most immediate problem. He needed mana then he could summon his own servant to eliminate one of the possible competitors. Then he could speedrun his way through the other servants.

The first was easily solved. Shirou had long come up with a plan to regain mana for his servant if he had ever run out. With a thought he had disappeared from the room and reappeared at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Unknown to every other being on Earth besides him and Sumire there were many places under the oceans waves that possessed excellent leylines but the Mariana's trench was unique in that mana from other leylines in the world's oceans was brought in by the tides and often got trapped there. With no magi to tap into this mana it had grown to a truly colossal amount. It was almost unfair Shirou remarked to himself as the amount of mana actually exceeded that of the cup for which he was competing.

Immediately he felt the pressure and then his twin cores swelled as overwhelmingly pure mana was absorbed into them and condensed to the extent that he felt like he could take on all of the servants six to one for the moment. Then he chuckled although it sounded more like a gurgle for the moment before he teleported to the next location on his journey to further tip the odds in his favour.

The Emiya residence was much like he remembered it, with the notable exception of no pool. The bounded field was no problem at all for a servant magician god. He held out his spoils for the evening, a shining gold sheath. He had found the alternate-self sleeping in an impressively shoddy workshop so he had extracted the item and in recompense activated the other Shirou's circuits and improved them to the level of his own when he still possessed magic circuits. He should have a very nice surprise in the morning. What a wonderful Christmas present, even if it's not Christmas.

The ritual was honestly a triviality for Shirou at this point, countless hours of pouring over the Enizbern and Matou's research notes had given him enough knowledge to do the ritual in his sleep. In less than five minutes he stood opposite the form of a young girl in blue sporty garments and a cap. Apparently King Arthur has modern tastes.

"I am Heroine X and I have arrived to deal with the increased number of Sabres," she said.

"Well there's at least one Saber so you can help with that," Shirou said looking at the most unusual servant in front of him. "Servant Assassin," he said.

"Saber," the servant instantly refuted.

"Servant Saber," Shirou said with a small smile on his lips. "My goal is to finish the Holy Grail War in the next two and a half hours. Are you with me?"

"How many servants are there?" she asked with determination in her eyes.

"Five," Shirou said.

"A worthy challenge," Heroine X said. "I'll follow your lead Master."

"Excellent," Shirou said as he held up his hand to his face and let water coalesce and form an icy mask on his face with. He breathed in the oxygenated water by his mouth and focused on the feedback given to him by the spell he cast over the town. "Let's go."

xxx

"One," said Shirou as the pair of weapons comically named Secret-Calibur cleaved the dragon into pieces. In the next second he used the Emiya crest slowing down time and thrust his hand into the core of Servant Rider dragging it out and extracting the mana from it. With a whistle to his 'definitely not King Arthur' servant he exited the building in which the Servant and her Master (a generic magus from Clocktower) had intended to make their base for the war.

xxx

"Two," Shirou said as he finished off the last of the worms. Killing Zouken and freeing Sakura wasn't any less of a chore this time, although he managed to avoid killing that prick Shinji this time. He was hoping to get a chance to fight off the servant (who turned out to be scythe wielding Medusa) but in the end he was forced to leave it to Heroine X who lacked the abilities to save Sakura and kill Zouken effectively. He sensed Heroine X used her finishing move to decapitate the servant and with a gesture he dissipated the fog that blocked eyesight. "We have an hour and a half left he informed his servant before he went to what would likely be his greatest challenge, the Einzberns."

xxx

"Three," Shirou said as he plunged both hands into a very familiar servant. What are the chances that he would get to meet Heracles again. Unfortunately for the white haired girl whose face was slowly turning into a look of horror he had both seen this before and beaten it. At the start of the fight he had once again immediately told her to unleash Secret-Calibur and then he had teleported her directly in front of the surprised Archer. As soon as she had broken through his God Hand Shirou had immediately teleported behind him and crushed both the core in his head and heart simultaneously delivering instant death to the servant beyond any possibility of healing. He looked at the alternate form of his sister with two maids he had never seen standing in front of her and guarding and he felt all the time he made up by his swift kill disappear.

"Would you like me to fix your body?" he asked, although the question was rhetorical. Despite this being an entire alternate dimension he would not let his sister die.

xxx

"Four," he said as he watched the twitching body of his last opponent. The warrior wore black and red armour that looked draconic in nature. He didn't speak the entire time they fought except to call out his Noble Phantasm. Shirou was quite lucky he had heard the name of his spear in time and was thus able to negate Gae Bolg before it took the heart of Heroine X. Still this was by no means and easy fight but with their superior numbers and prana they managed to safely dismantle the mad warrior. Still with his incredibly high strength, his incredibly fast speed as well as the how resilient he was, being able to absorb Secret-Calibur without dying he had eaten up a lot of their remaining time and their prana. Eventually Shirou had to fall back on his old ability Amessunu Istenis; an ability with an anti-human nature that finally put him back into the grave.

"One more," Shirou said and his servant nodded slightly glumly. While the servants that they had previously fought had been reasonably strong none of them had been Sabers. "The next one may not be a saber but he has a lot of swords if that makes any difference."

"It doesn't," she responded gloomily. "Let's just get this over with."

Shirou nodded and teleported them away for the final battle.

xxx

"Gilgamesh," Shirou said. "Prepare to die."

"Nice to see you again Shirou," Gilgamesh said as he put down the controller He was sitting on a couch playing some driving game in his full armour.

"Yeah it's nice to see you... wait you remember," Shirou said mentally revaluating their relationship.

"Yes I can see other timelines Shirou," Gilgamesh said. "I've been watching you since you were summoned. By the way you have ten minutes to defeat me and claim the grail. Should you really still be standing around talking?"

"Shit no," Shirou said as he charged forward abandoning any restraint in order to bring down his final opponent.

Five minutes later Gilgamesh finally dissolved into golden dust. Heroine X had no interest in the fight and Shirou had no desire to fight so Shirou had left her out of it and went with the extremely cheap tactic of unloading all his magic at Gilgamesh in waves of ice and water then teleporting back to recharge at the Marianas trench and then do it again. Eventually he teleported to the Tohsaka mansion and hypnotized a sleeping Rin to use all three of her command seals to 'force' him to regain his original power. From then on it was a simple matter to overpower and destroy Gilgamesh. Even his trump card of EA that he pulled out from under an invisibility cloak was crushed by its true owner.

From then on things got really boring. He transferred the seals from Heroine X to Rin, purified the grail and dropped it off in Rin's bedroom. After extracting a promise from Heroine X to look after Rin and check on his alternate self now and again he allowed himself to naturally fade away. Holy Grail Wars are pretty fun. He should see if he can do it again some time.

xxx

"That's not very funny," Shirou said as he handed as he placed another present under the tree.

"Maybe the authors reaching the bottom of the barrel on his humour repository," Satsuki said sceptically.

"Well it's already over 3500 words," Shirou pointed out. "That's longer than usual. We better hurry onto the next omake before he just gives up on the whole thing."

"Okay, okay," Satsuki said as she did something equally Christmassy. "The next omake is called 'The Obligatory Beach Episode.' Man I wonder what that's about," Satsuki said as she rolled her eyes.

"The script says you're in it," Shirou said reading from a file as the scene switched.

xxx

It was truly a beautiful day. No clouds impeded the rays of the sun on their path down to the sand. A gentle breeze blew through the air breaking the heat of the day and changing something oppressive into something fresh and pleasant. Shirou sat upon a rocky outcrop a few metres out to see fishing whilst wearing a Hawaiian shirt, shorts and sandals. Arcueid was somewhere below interfering with his fish and Satsuki had created a massive sand castle.

"Why are we here anyway," Arcueid said as she surfaced immediately throwing a pair of fish towards her lover.

"We're here to do an omake," Shirou said. "I'm not sure why you're here. Didn't you opt out of all of this due to the fact that it's your birthday?"

"I never miss an opportunity to go to the beach Shirou," Arc said seriously. "But what I meant is. What is the point of this omake? Are we going to do standard things such as watermelon smashing, beauty contests and volleyball?"

"I hate watermelon, Arc," Shirou pointed out. "There are only two of you here and I'm sleeping with you so a beauty contest would not only be underwhelming but I'm obviously going to choose you. As for volleyball we can do that later, how does two play one judge sound?"

"We could have sex?" Arcueid said shamelessly gesturing at the beach, deserted except for their mutual friend who was now expanding the castle into a multi-layer town.

"Absolutely no way Arcueid," Shirou denied immediately. "You know that if he was going to do that the author would have to open up another chapter of 'After the Date'. Quite frankly I'm surprised he hasn't thrown in the towel already concerning the visible decline in quality of chapter. Thank the gods this is non-canon."

"I notice the fact that Satsuki was there wasn't a consideration," Arcueid pointed out.

"She's a big girl. I'm sure Sumire's taught her about the birds and the bees already," Shirou pointed out.

"Do you mean like personally," Arcueid started with a roguish smile.

"I… don't know," Shirou said fighting down a blush. "Enough, the reason I took us to this Greek island was because I heard from my sources that there had been sightings of Moby Dick."

"The whale you saw in chapter four?" Arcueid started.

"Okay I've had it," Shirou said pulling out his Desert Eagle from somewhere in his Hawaiian shirt. "The next person who breaks the fourth wall gets shot."

"I'll be good," Arcueid said.

"All I want is a picture," Shirou said. "I want to remember the first time I met Sumire."

"Sounds interesting, no actually it sounds boring," Arcueid replied. "So how are you going to get the shot?"

"Easily," Shirou stated. "I've been pumping prana into the water and as a god of water my prana should be extremely attractive to any oceanic creatures."

"You're a deity of freshwater though," Arcueid sensibly pointed out.

"Unless there's a deity of freshwater dumping prana in another place of the ocean then it won't make a difference," he replied.

"So then all we have to do is wait," Arcueid said.

"All we have to do is wait," Shirou stated as his eyes scanned the depths of the ocean.

Time passed. Satsuki's city became populated by small red crabs that she spawned from DNA she received from Sumire. Outside she spawned and army of black crabs and the she watched over them as the black crabs sieged the red's city occasionally intervening like a god over those two armies. Eventually the black crabs overtook the city and put the red crabs to death and reigned over the city in their place. That is until the black crabs fell into a civil war divided into the dark black shells and the light black shells. The civil war was hard fought but it displeased their god and she responded by obliterating the whole thought experiment.

"So how's it going with you," Satsuki said as she re-joined the other two. "Shirou I just found out being a god is pretty hard."

"Trust me when I say the worst part is dealing with other gods," Shirou said. "The word prick does not begin to describe the majority of them."

"What are you looking for anyway," their goddess in training friend said sitting down next to them on the rocks.

"Moby Dick, do you intend to grapple with him for much longer," Satsuki replied.

"Make him my own personal white whale?" Shirou asked. "No, it is a lovely day though."

"Are we giving up Shirou," Arcueid said.

"Pretty much," the magician responded immediately. "I have this dreaded feeling that as soon as I leave the whale will appear. I guess I just won't get my photo."

"If you want a photo, I think Sumire has one of him," Satsuki said. "I can look back home."

Shirou nodded and a smile lit up his face. "That would be great thank you." In one smooth movement he wrapped an arm around Arcueid and then the pair of them were gone in the next instant. Satsuki took one last look at the ocean before she also disappeared. A few minutes after they left the sea rippled for a moment as if something moved beneath it and then went calm.

xxx

"That ending was slightly disappointing," Shirou said.

"Isn't that the meaning of Christmas though," Satsuki said. "We give gifts away. Sometimes they're not perfect. Sometimes they're not even good. But if it can brighten up somebodies day then maybe it was worth it."

"Still I wouldn't expect any more omakes ever basically, or at least not for another two hundred and sixty thousand chapters," Shirou said. "Hopefully this story will be done before New Year. There are only a few more chapters left," he says basically repeating what the author has said dozens of times already."

"Merry Christmas everybody," Satsuki said deciding to end this chapter here.

"Have a good Yule," Shirou said concurring with Satsuki's statement.


	70. Chapter 69

Despair was a feeling absolutely foreign to the last True Ancestor until now. Knives stabbed into her heart as the confirmation that she had been dreading ever since she had seen the bloody pool finally drove its hooks into her mind and refused to leave. At that moment for the first time since she had slaughtered the rest of her race she felt true regret. Regret that she had left Shirou unattended and hadn't stuck by him, regret that she hadn't been faster, regret that she hadn't told him she loved him lately and regret that thanks to Shirou's help she could no longer just give up and fade into the bloodlust.

She turned her hate filled eyes towards the goddess disregarding the fact that she was so much stronger than her. She strained against her invisible bonds that kept her down and she felt the strength from Gaia flow into her body boosting her strength far beyond her previous limits, but still her bindings would not disappear. Only now did Tiamat focus on the group and despite her inhuman appearance there was a clear look of contempt on her face. A wave of water appeared from nothingness and blasted towards Arcueid at impossible speeds and the True Ancestor felt time slow down as her unimaginable power strained against her invisible restraints while certain death barrelled towards her. It never reached as a spattering of jewels suddenly appeared in front of her forming some complex formation that Arcueid couldn't even begin to comprehend. As soon as the water approached the magical formation it evaporated without a trace.

Arcueid had only a second to look at the irritation on Tiamat's face before the surrounding scenery changed and the cave was replaced by the smoke and mist filled streets of Fuyuki.

"You failed," Narbareck said dispensing with the niceties immediately.

"We were too late," Zelretch said gravely. "She can speak the Unified Language," he said warning her.

"That's… not ideal," Narbareck sighed as she ran her hands through her hair. She looked tired and worn out upon hearing the news. "Okay," she said as determination entered her one good eye. "I'm going to try and take her down the rest of you can kill that other monster and try against Tiamat if I die before she does."

"If she so much as speaks to you, you won't be able to act against her," Zelretch said as he contemplated his ally seriously.

"The Unified Language can be resisted by those who have access to the Root and works directly against the soul of the person. In other words if a person doesn't have a soul then it will be ineffective."

"Are you really so willing to die?" Zelretch asked. "Don't sell your life cheaply."

"Don't worry I will extract the maximum value out of my life," Narbareck said brushing off his concerns. She turned away and then stopped briefly. "If you people get out of this alive and feel like doing some good in the world you might want to give the church a call. They can be very good at putting talents to use. Goodbye," she said disappearing.

"What is she going to do?" Satsuki asked curiously and for the first time Arcueid noticed that she was also her. She must have dug herself out of the dirt and stone. She needs to tell her that Shirou's de… gone. The bonds on her body were gone, she didn't quite know when she was able to move again and the tide of power from Gaia urged her to take revenge on the dragon goddess. To crush her for what she did to Shirou. But a more rational part of her brain told her that she wouldn't be able to escape from those words again.

"I'll go with her," Zelretch said to the remaining forces. "As a magician I can resist those words. In addition I have a stockpile of jewels that I have saved in the event that I ever needed to fight a Type again. If we work together we might be able to destroy her."

"Wait this Tiamat girl has revived," Satsuki said still apparently on a different page. "What happened to Shirou?"

"He's dead," Arcueid choked out. "She killed him."

Satsuki's near constant smile dropped as her face grew suddenly dark. "I'll kill her," she swore. "I'll tear her to pieces and burn the bits." She looked towards the direction of the temple as pitch black storm clouds formed above it and she turned before her shoulder was caught by Zelretch.

"You have no defence against the words," he said with a firm voice. "If you want to avenge yourself on Tiamat then slay her children that are currently killing humanity."

Satsuki looked for a moment as if she would attack the old vampire, but that moment quickly passed and then she turned her face away. "What are the locations of the beasts?" she asked Zelretch her face blank.

"Be careful," Zelretch said after a moment. He directed his hand towards Satsuki and a light enveloped the… well whatever species of being Satsuki was now.

"Memory transfer magic," Satsuki stated to herself with some slight interest before she nodded once to Arcueid with a look of sympathy and disappeared.

"I will join the fight with you," Aoko said and her voice sounded immensely hollow. Arcueid kept forgetting that she was Shirou's brother, but to be fair she had only met her a few days ago.

"Do you think you could be any help," Zelretch said eying her appraisingly.

Aoko paused for a moment and then turned to the last True Ancestor. "Arcueid, could I borrow a few decades of your life in order to avenge Shirou?"

"Ah," Arcueid said dumbly not quite comprehending the phrasing. "Sure," she said after a few seconds contemplation. She would give anything right now to see that bitch dead in the ground.

"Excellent," Aoko said stretching out a hand to the White Princess. After a few seconds Arcueid felt something leave her and Aoko... changed. Was that the right word? Something was different about her, a way of movement, an expression, something else intangible changed. Aoko nodded to her, a serious expression on her face and disappeared in a manner completely different from teleportation.

In the next instant Zelretch was also gone and Arcueid was standing there alone. Wait, not alone. There was also Heracles.

"Are you not going to join them in taking down that piece of shit," Arcueid said her face contorted in anger and frustration.

"My prana reserves are running low and I don't think that even in my best condition I would have made a large difference," the last remaining servant on their side said. "My master originally instructed me to follow the instructions of Shirou. Now that he is gone I think that I will fight to protect the citizens."

Just right then a loud thump echoed throughout Fuyuki and Arcueid tilted her head in its general direction trying to discern its exact location. Unable to see through the murky streets, she bent her knees and soared into the skies jumping above the layer of dust and water that plagued the disaster zone that was Fuyuki. A familiar form was visible to her eyes even if it wasn't in a familiar size. One of the min scorpions earlier must have been really diligent and eaten their vegetables. The creature looked almost identical to the other man-sized scorpions except its carapace was pitch-black compared to the more brown-black of the babies with red tattoos that ran the length of the creature.

"Shirou would probably make a joke about the Japanese and Kaiju," Arcueid said to herself as another wave of depression hit her. She kicked off from the air creating as a shockwave as she rocketed to wards the ground in front of the scorpion man and then rebounded off the earth to land a punch on the carapace of her enemy. The sound of cracking was heard as the carapace splintered under her fist but the creature took only one step backwards before focusing on Arcueid.

"That's not good," the last True Ancestor thought to herself seeing the results of her surprise attack. Even Primate Murder would have been damaged by that attack yet the creature didn't seem worse for wear. In fact it looked like she had only made it angry.

A moment of warning was all she got before she was forced to dodge to the left as its fist came down crushing the street on which she stood. She didn't even have a moment to react as a hypersonic tail thrust pierced her breast thrusting with such speed that she left the ground and went flying through the air, passing the river into the other half of Fuyuki and crashing through several buildings before she came to a stop in the ground floor of a building.

Standing up she felt a fatal poison course its way through her cells and so she instantly restored her body shrugging off the effects. Overwhelming power from Gaia flowed through her body in opposition to the atrocities committed by Tiamat and so she shook off the rubble from her body and stepped through the street. There was a small crowd of people around her throughout various members of the church were sprinkled. Apparently she interrupted them in the process of evacuation because there were far too many people gathered around far too few busses and other modes of transport. A few flashes of light indicated that she was caught in camera and Arcueid could do nothing but shake her head in disbelief at the priorities of the humans.

A quick set of thuds was all the warning that Arcueid got allowing her barely any time to launch herself at the oncoming mountain of flesh. The White Princess launched herself towards the scorpion man, this time launching a shoulder into his chest. Their combined momentum dropped to zero and Arcueid dropped to the floor as the thing recoiled.

"So the top half is weaker," she muttered to herself as she examined the surroundings. While that information was good to know, her current priority was getting the thing away from the humans. The shockwave from their collision had already caused havoc on the comparatively fragile humans and toppled at least one bus. Letting the power of nature rush into her Arcueid summoned a tornado in each hand and rushed forward letting off punches at the bottom carapace. While no damage was done to the hard outer shell the combined force of her punches as well as the gale force winds that were generated by each and every blow forced the creature backwards and away from the humans.

Suddenly the creature swung down with its hand in an attempt to crush its smaller opponent, but Arcueid was prepared this time and she backpedalled quickly to avoid the strike. Instantly the tail whipped forward at hypersonic speed and once again the True Ancestor was prepared. Relying on her intuition over her eyes, Arcueid dodged at the last millisecond gripping the tail with both hands and straining her muscles to the limits she ran forward and swung the creature by its appendage. Once, twice she whirled the beast around her before she let it go and allowed it to go flying onto the more ruined side of Fuyuki. She was about to leave when the sounds of cheering reached her ears and she turned back.

Hundreds of humans from the very old to the very young cheered for her. Tears flowed and yet there was a sense of joy among the collective as they got to live another day. Homes destroyed, people that they had known killed and their entire lives upturned, but they were alive and here right now and they showed their gratitude to their saviour.

"It feels pretty good," Arcueid said in barely a whisper as she turned away. "Seeing the lives that you save for a change." Her eyes couldn't see through the smoke that filled the streets but she had a general idea of where the creature was. "I'm not going to let anybody else die on my watch today." With those words she vanished, moving at speeds beyond the human eye towards the Scorpion Man.

xxx

Zelretch was not having a good day. In fact that was perhaps the worst day of his life. The day in which he had misjudged the strength of the Crimson Moon draining him of the vast majority of his youth and strength now only occupied a distant second place to these twenty-four hours. Although perhaps it was wrong to state that it was only the day which went wrong, if it wasn't for his own folly then he would have been aware of the problem at least a week in advance.

When the dimension had shuddered and started to drift Zelretch had disregarded it at first but remained vigilant. When the problem worsened he started to look outward first to neighbouring dimensions and outside these dimensions. When nothing could be found then he instead started to investigate various possible disaster sights. Nothing had been found though. Type Mercury was as docile as usual and nothing from Atlas had shown up on the radar as a red flag. He was about to give up when he heard of an extraordinary number of attacks by the Dead and their masters. A few visits to scenes of attacks and a questioning by the various exorcists provided a worrying trend. So he travelled to Aylesbury and after a thorough exploration he found nothing, no he found less than nothing. Even the prior preparations that had been in place to enact the ritual were abandoned as if they were worth nothing. It was at this point when Zelretch had begun to feel the start of a panic as the world seemed to be collapsing with him none the wiser. Without any further delay he visited Lorelei, or at least tried to. When he ventured towards her are of the Clocktower he was informed, politely as the respect due to a Wizard Marshall warranted, that the young lady was participating in the Holy Grail War.

To paraphrase Tolkien 'a flash of clarity bestowed unto him a vison of just how deep his idiocy had run.' The Aylesbury ritual could have easily used the Holy Grail as a power source and he had seen the Holy Grail War go horrifically wrong thousands of times. Immediately he had decided to go to Fuyuki and evaluate the situation, and that's when disaster had struck. Gazamy's escape was a thing of beauty from the point of somebody who yearned for destruction of chaos. The destruction of London was a swift and terrible thing and he had brought an immediate end to the Evil Spirit as soon as he saw him, rendering the creature of strife and chaos a corpse instantly.

Still it didn't bring back the lives of those who fell afoul of the creature and nor would it enable him to stop the madness. During the fight he had become aware of the fact that his Magic had weakened vastly, the effects almost certainly relating to the lack of current parallel universes. If the deviation could be fixed then his Magic would return at full strength but if it were severed completely then his Magic would entirely disappear and he would then only be a millennia old vampire and one of the strongest magi on the planet. Smiling grimly he appeared in Fuyuki and it was there that he received one of the least pleasant surprises he had ever seen.

Zelretch shook his head as he arrived at the foot of the mountain to see Narbareck finish her ritual. The rite of returning was an ancient ritual barely used by the church that returned ones soul to god in return for a minor amount of Authority, the drawbacks being unavoidable death, a five minute time to prepare, less than half an hour duration and the risk that they might not even be able to complete it correctly and thus die for nothing. When the head of the Burial agency lifted her head there was no humanity left behind those eyes and Zelretch frowned in disappointment at the loss of a young life before following her to the temple.

"What took you so long?" the Fifth Magician said as they arrived at the top of the temple steps.

"Has anything happened," Zelretch said disregarding her question. At this stage there was no time for anything else. Every second that the Mother of Dragons survived was another second where hundreds if not thousands of humans would die.

"Still as the grave," Aoko replied back matching his seriousness. "Is she okay?" she asked pointing towards Narbareck who was staring at the temple with a strong sense of deliberation. Suddenly Zelretch watched as Narbareck vacant eyes widened and then the space around them disappeared and they were in the air a hundred metres above the ground. The temple below them was gone, instantly erased along with the ground of Fuyuki. The only thing that lay beneath them was the dark murky waters that signalled the presence of Tiamat.

"Well there goes the homefield advantage," Aoko said staring down at the murky waters easily defying gravity. In the next instant arrows of black fire were aimed upwards at the trio however they were simply dodged by Zelretch and disappeared upon approaching the other two. Resting atop the blackened waters they could see a corrupted, darkened version of the previously golden servant that opposed them in the cave. Zelretch opened his mouth to announce a plan when the tainted servant immediately disappeared from the surface of the ocean, teleported right in front of them and was obliterated by Aoko in one precise blast of light that melted right through his armour and eradicated the legend of humanity in an instant.

"Since when did I become the slowest of the group," Zelretch lamented but inside he was happy that those standing with him were so powerful. Every scrap of power would prove necessary in this fight.

The black waters rippled revealing Tiamat in the form of a beautiful horned woman with an emotionless disposition. She was staring towards them but no recognition showed upon her face. Countless spires of black water rose from the ocean all angling towards them carrying immeasurable amounts of mass between them. Aoko and Narbareck disappeared but this time it was Zelretch's turn to take the attack head on and that's what he did. Like a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat, he pulled countless gems out from empty space and threw them dozens of metres away into the air where they swirled around him forming an icosahedron. Immediately upon entering the area of space surrounded by the gems the black water dissipated into the atmosphere.

"Impressive old man," Aoko said as she reappeared inside the complex sequence of rotating gems. "What does it do?"

"The gems absorb True Ether and forcibly convert it into mana," Zelretch said as he raised his hand. The gems swiftly rotated until a wall of reds faced the goddess and waves of fire blazed down onto the goddess, only to be peter out as it met the force of the waves. "As long as she is in the ocean we won't be able to defeat her. Anybody have a way of dragging her out." As he said this, the sky further blackened as the water rose up into the air to blot out the sky and encircle the three with millions of tons of water.

Narbareck shook her head but Aoko grinned and raised her right hand chanting a stream of what sounded like gibberish even to Zelretch's trained ears. The world changed on a fundamental level and the relentless onslaught of the mud ceased for a moment allowing the remains of the watery assault to fall back to the Earth. Zelretch sharply inhaled as he caught sight of the event that had disturbed Tiamat's onslaught. The city of Fuyuki stood there once again, with none of the damage that had accumulated over this vastly destructive war.

Hovering a few feet above the ground was Tiamat who was staring at the land temple which suddenly appeared beneath her. Suddenly she looked up and the look of irritation on her face was gone to be replaced by a look of severe annoyance. The distance between the two of them stretched to over one hundred kilometres as space expanded pre-emptively and Tiamat disappeared. Zelretch moved shoving Narbareck out of the way and in exchange he received a hand through his stomach that blew off the bottom half of his torso. His defensive codes had crumpled like paper for a tsunami and in that instant he was briefly exposed with the certainty of imminent death in front of him, before Tiamat retreated swiftly backwards.

"What?" he said with a profound lack of elegance as an all-powerful goddess retreated from him. His body regenerated as was normal for a vampire of his age, but at this time he had no spare attention to pay attention to it as he watched the Mother of Dragons gaze at him warily. It became pretty clear to Zelretch at this point that she had been underestimated. It was impossible to fight her head on. Narbareck seemed unable to work her teleportation directly on her and while Aoko had returned her to land it didn't seem to bother her for more than a few moments yet somehow this failed product of his somehow managed to make this goddess back off.

"Use magecraft," Zelretch said to his companions. "This mobile bounded field absorbs True Ether and converts it into mana. Black Bullet will be useless against her Narbareck," Zelretch said turning to the head of the Burial Agency. "They're both made of True Ether." He opened his mouth to further explain his plan only to be disrupted at the last moment.

" _Come out,_ " Tiamat said speaking to the three of them and Zelretch was halfway to the barrier before he even registered the words that she said. He quickly moved backwards away from the edge and swiftly found himself touching the boundary. Focusing everything on the border he wrestled with his arm that was slowly inching towards the and suddenly found himself back in the middle. Casting a grateful glance towards Narbareck he watched as Aoko was also transported back to the centre. "I'll try expanding the anti-True Ether space. Narbareck, you try catching her in it. Aoko, use your most destructive spells to harass her and keep her focused on us rather than retreat to the sea. We're the last hope for humanity. We cannot fail."

Narbareck nodded and Aoko gave a thumbs up. With that Zelretch summoned more of the thousands of gems that he had accumulated in life and bent them all towards the purpose of destroying the dragon goddess.

xxx

The saddest fact about life is that sometimes your best is not enough. It was a fact that Zelretch was intimately aware of having seen the same thing happen many, many times to many, many parallel worlds that died for no reason but poor luck. The strategy probably would not have worked he reflected, but when Narbareck's body dropped down into the mud after twenty minutes, but when Tiamat grew in size and started to fire concentrated blasts of True Ether at Aoko in response it drove the final nail into the coffin of humanity. Aoko had not long after the battle of the beams lost a lot of strength as she reverted into the state before she took Arcueids time and dropped from the sky. Seeing that she could offer no more help Zelretch grabbed her before leaving her on the ground and forced Tiamat away from the Fifth Magician by clever uses of his gem bounded field.

In the end all that was left between Tiamat and the rest of the world was one exhausted Dead Apostle Ancestor with a rapidly dwindling supply of gems and a determination to hold her off for as long as possible. He had already expended gems with a worth greater than that of a small country and he refused to stop at this point. More black water as well as blasts of True Ether assaulted his position and he relied on his only possible defence to hold off the furious goddess. His hand scraped the bottom of his bag and he tossed out the last handful of gems and he mustered all the strength in his aching limbs to straighten up.

The goddess avoided contact with the zone after the first time. It was after all a space with no True Ether in which gods could not exist. Another dozen gems shattered and he weaved countless finicky magecrafts to inconvenience and weaken his opponent but in the end he was only delaying the inevitable. First the surrounding gems decreased to a few thousand, then a few hundred, then a few dozen until eventually he had to do battle directly with Tiamat with only a dwindling force of his ten finest gems. An elite force that he owned but seldom used, each one with a story behind them he could recite off the top of his head and yet they also cracked, piece by piece until with an almost anticlimactic finish, the last yellow Citrine cracked and then with a single swipe of the giant goddess his body was mulched and his head hit the floor.

Despair flooded the remains of his body as he saw the goddess walk away from the man who was once the strongest in the world, now powerless, until he saw her pause. The world shuddered as a massive wave of True Ether, maybe even equal to that of Tiamat hit the area. The last sight that Zelretch saw was a flash of red and he died with a hopeful smile.

xxx

Far away in a place beyond time and space a beautiful woman with scarlet-streaked jet-black hair sat watching the skies. She had slightly bronze skin and a stood at 1.7 metres. Her figure despite being in no way voluptuous gave off an image of sex and danger and she possessed a wicked smile as she watched the scenes in the blue sky above.

An image of the world was reflected in the heavens, but it was by no means a dry and static globe. A genuine peal of elated laughter escaped the woman's lips as she saw blue devour black and the oceans of the water fight against the dark ooze that Tiamat had spread. With eyes that far surpassed any current satellite she scanned the cities, watching as the damaged World started to knit itself together again. Torn earth, torn buildings, torn flesh. Nothing was left out as the world was rewoven and the true power of EA, the greatest ever Noble Phantasm was released. She briefly glanced at a hole in that landscape that currently was not getting repaired, the site of the ill-fated and short resurrection of Kingu. While Kingu could not be called a pushover by any means, there was no way that a half-resurrected god could absorb the full might of that dreadful tool. The watcher clapped her hands in sheer delight as she watched him move instantly from the barren ice of Antarctica to the destroyed city of Fuyuki and she gasped as the True Ether in the atmosphere of Fuyuki soared to absurd levels.

"You're getting a lot of fun out of watching a foregone conclusion," a familiar voice said causing the entity known as Alaya to stop her watching of the big show.

"Well this is the first time I'm watching it," Alaya said with a welcoming smile. "I didn't exactly have front row seats like you must have."

"I can assure you that nothing of that sort was on my mind when that was me out there," Enki said as he sat down next to Alaya and hypocritically started watching the world. "Wow I've really grown up in the ten years since I met myself and gave me my Magic. He's going to feel real stupid in his future when he realises that he still has to go have done that."

"Somebody is going to have to really invent better time travel tenses," Alaya said almost nostalgically.

"That's not a problem for at least a few millennia," Enki said. "Three at the very least, two if we get a couple of geniuses every century. One and a half if humanity goes all in."

"It sounds like a beautiful future," Alaya said. "I wish I could be around to see it."

"How much do you have left," Enki asked his voice solemn.

"We're currently in a place beyond the simple space-time of your home dimension," Alaya said. "About half an hour," she stated after seeing Enki's unimpressed look.

"Want to watch the fight," Enki offered awkwardly.

"Yeah," Alaya said wiping her eyes clandestinely. "Let's."

Forty minutes later Enki wiped his eyes and disappeared.

 **Author Note: Probably about three more chapters.**

 **Regfurby: That was one of the greatest things I've read. I wanted to try write out my first omake and you completely knocked all three of mine out of the water. You made my day, and considering that day was Christmas you did a pretty flipping good job.**


	71. Chapter 70

"Tiamat," Enki said as he stared upwards at the oceanic goddess. She was over twenty metres tall at the moment, but when she saw him she began to shrink to match his size. 'Things have not gone well here', was the thought that rushed through his mind as he saw the final flickers of life leave the most heroic of the Dead Apostle Ancestors. He gave a respectful nod to a man who had done nothing but good for this world and he scanned the area, immediately seeing the bodies of the other two. Narbareck was also dead; a fact that Enki took no joy at all in seeing. Despite her unpleasant demeanour and love for perpetuating violence the first head of the Burial Agency was a hero that would always act in the interests of Humanity and the Church. Aoko was alive but tired; an overuse of the Fifth Magic seems to have rendered her almost comatose, again. It was a bitter and yet necessary cost; two of mankind's strongest defenders dead and one comatose and all to hold off the goddess for thirty minutes. Still in keeping her occupied for those thirty minutes they probably saved millions of lives.

All in all the obliteration of Kingu had taken under one tenth of a second. As soon as he felt the familiar taste of foreign authority used EA to break through the texture of the world and instantly teleported to the forming god. Kingu had always been a powerful god. As Tiamat's general, as the god whose blood gave birth to humans and as the god who had the capacity to take over as the leader of the gods he had a tremendous amount of authority, probably not that far away from his own. Still no matter his power he had barely even reached the form of an infant and thus Enki immediately took advantage of his foes incorporeality; striking him down and dispersing his essence for the time being.

Enki casually scraped flicked dirt from under his fingernails spawning two Galla demons. These were vagely humanlike creatures with oversized torso and arms and no sexual characteristics. They stood a full three metres and were similar in body makeup to Enkidu. Enki had long used them as hands and feet for specific instances in which he was unable to act directly.

"Go rescue her," Enki said, gesturing with his thumb towards the unconscious Aoko. "Then retrieve the bodies of Zelretch and Narbareck."

They took off but in the very next instant Tiamat dropped to the floor and allowed her feet to touch the land. Naturally the place which she stood didn't stay land for very long as black water burst from the area beneath her feet spreading towards Enki and the Galla. The water coalesced into the forms of various monsters and Enki's eye's hardened. Earlier he had focused almost exclusively on the threat possessed by Tiamat's greatest children forgetting (no, he didn't forget) setting aside the matter of her weaker children that would be automatically spawned by her very presence. While the difference between her greatest children and her weakest was incomparably, the countless numbers of sea borne monstrosities would surely kill more than the gods she produced.

While his Galla demons definitely had the edge in quality, he had no desire to see whether they could overcome the massive quantity of monsters. EA turned once, almost lazily, in his hand and space cracked and rippled erasing the monsters in the span of less than a breath.

"Protect people from her monsters," Enki said shaking his hands and summoning another eight Galla. This time Tiamat didn't allow monsters to go after them; instead she stood there and let the black water expand from the soles of her feet.

"Enki," she said to him in the ancient language, scrutinizing the other god. "It's good to see you again."

"I'm sorry?" Enki replied trying to get his head around that sentence. "We've never met before," he continued, narrowing his eyes at the saltwater goddess.

"Yes, this is the first time that we meet face to face," Tiamat said walking to the side forcing him to turn his head. "And yet don't you think that the impact we've had on each other's lives have been of paramount importance, despite having never encountered each other."

"Is that so?" Enki said, not denying it.

"I warned the younger gods about the threat that my husband posed to them," Tiamat said, speaking over Enki. "Never did I expect that any of our offspring were actually able to kill Apsu. It was an event that was impossible and yet it clearly happened."

"All events are impossible until that happen, Tiamat," Enki said not relaxing an inch. "If it was easy to kill a primordial deity then people would be doing it all the time."

"You cannot understand the fear that coursed through my body as I heard the news," Tiamat said. "Realising my own transience for the first time I was compelled to wipe out the rest of my children. But in the end I was killed by your brother without even the chance to meet with you."

"So that's the form of the myth we're going with," Enki whispered under his breath. "Which lead to my brother being declared King of the Gods which lead to the creation of the humanity, which lead to the downfall of the gods. I truly cannot understate the influence that you've had on my life either Tiamat," Enki said, his voice wary but respectful. "I however fail to see where you're going with this."

'I highly doubt that Enki," Tiamat said. "I'm sure that by this point you must know exactly where this is going. You and I are the same. Both of us are powerful gods. Both of us have created offspring that we dearly love and yet both of us have been gravely betrayed by them. You hold the domain of freshwater and I hold the domain of saltwater. Can you see where I'm going with this?"

"You're hitting on me," Enki said crossing his arms as he eyed up the dragon goddess. "Your husband's killer."

"The gods were given birth when the freshwater and saltwater mixed," Tiamat implored with genuine anticipation in her voice. "We can start again and do it better this time. Descendants that won't bear their fangs at us, that will never disappoint us, that will only love and respect us, forever." She stretched out her hand towards the Mesopotamian god. "We don't have to fight Enki."

"How did humans betray me?" Enki asked. His arms were still crossed and he scrutinized the goddess with eyes that revealed no emotions.

"They stopped worshipping you and the rest of the gods," Tiamat said with some insistence. "Their dismissal of the gods ended our age and forced us from the world despite everything you did for them. If that is not betrayal then I don't know what is."

The freshwater god's response shocked Tiamat. Laughter spilled from his lips and his shoulders shook as his chuckles grew. This continued for a few seconds until Enki stopped taking a breath as he looked at Tiamat with a rueful smile.

"Sorry I shouldn't laugh," he said. "You're entirely correct. We are very alike, but you did leave out one difference. Despite everything we both love our creations don't we." The sea goddess didn't answer but Enki didn't require one. "Do you know the day that Gilgamesh rejected the gods was the happiest of my life," he said shaking his head and ignoring the shocked expression that dominated his adversary's face. "There are a lot of things that I can say about that guy. He's a tyrant, a rapist and an asshole with an ego far bigger than any mortal should have and yet that was the one time that I was most proud of him. His creation was the last chance that the gods had to prevent themselves from fading into myth and they failed spectacularly. From then onwards there was no chance that humanity would go extinct as their powers waxed and the power of the gods waned. Humanity won," Enki said staring down his foe. "My own end is a small price to pay for that."

Only the sound of the waves of the black waters disrupted the silence. In an instant Tiamat stamped her foot on the ground and the Earth shattered beneath her heel. A tsunami washed over the land flattening the few upstanding buildings and heading towards the lone god. Still this much couldn't even be considered an attack. A twitch of his hand and a brief utilisation of his magic and the entire flood [froze]. With a thought he shattered the ice and sent the shards at Tiamat at speeds that were only possible in the age of gods before traditional physics kicked in and capped everybody at 300 000 kilometres per second.

"Have the humans not disappointed you," Tiamat said her voice rising despite her face remaining stoic. Every single one of the ice shards sent her way disappeared as soon as they drew near to her. "All of your principles lie desecrated by the usurpers. I watched as you yourself slew some of them. You cannot still express satisfaction with them."

"You've watched me a long time," Enki said to himself as he thought of the people he had killed. While the majority were dead apostles that had renounced their humanity he would be a liar if he said he hadn't slew his share of unscrupulous magi or even remorseless criminals. "You're entirely correct," Enki said sighing. "Yes humans kill and cheat and steal. They hate and destroy. As hesitant as I am to assign such a vague and subjective a term as evil, I must admit that SOME humans are evil," he said stressing the word 'some'. "But then again some humans aren't adulterers," Shirou continued with a rueful smile. "Some humans are my moral superior. They save and help and give. They love and create. I have faith that someday eventually the goodness of humanity inherent in the species will win." Enki reached up to his head and discarded his golden crown that would only get in the way during the fight. "Until then, I suppose I will just have to save the chaff along with the wheat."

With those words Enki and Tiamat reached their impasse and the fight began. EA flared spinning with its full might and dozens of blue tornados flickered into life around him. They spinning blades of wind casually tore space-time apart but they barely scratched the nubile body of Tiamt when they impacted against her figure nanoseconds later. Her response was instant and would have likely destroyed Enki and Japan behind him if he wasn't prepared. A blast of True Ether with the output of a dozen Holy Grails emerged into being in front of him just as Enki finished up his magic trick, using the fourth True Magic to give an area of space different space-time coordinates. He kept half an eye on the blast of prana as it left the atmosphere, momentarily outshining the dawn sun.

His concentration didn't waver for a moment and he watched as thousands upon thousands of icy arms as large as tree trunks formed and lashed out at him like uncoiling snakes. A word in response and a watery wall formed before breaking into pieces and blocking each of the thousands of the arms individually. Each wall had the concept of [breaking] [time] and [death] removed from them and were imbued with the concepts of [stillness] [durability] and [resistance]. Even still a single wall could only take at most three of those tremendous punches backed up by a god's authority and enough kinetic energy to crack the plates of the world.

This exchange lasted for thousands of milliseconds as each side conjured innumerable amounts of watery structures in an attempt to overwhelm the other. Unfortunately in these situations it is almost always the attacking side that has the advantage and in this exchange it was also the case. A single icy arm hidden in the debris of the shattered others and Enki had an infinitesimal time to brace himself before he was struck with the force of a meter and his body went flying against his will towards the ground below.

The concrete that marked the reaming roads on the relatively intact part of Fuyuki didn't even last for a moment as he broke through the thin surface with absolutely no decrease in his momentum. Hard ground disintegrated before his meteoric descent and he had descended far into the bowels of the world before he got the chance to remove [inertia] from his body allowing him to come to a sudden, impossibly swift, stop in the middle of a sea of molten rock. He was swiftly reminded of the advantages of being a god as the temperatures of thousands of degrees kelvin lead only to a bit of discomfort and a nasty taste in his mouth. With a thought he summoned millions of gallons of water and let it turn to steam in the boiling underground ocean. A slight spin of EA and he subtly manipulated the passage which his body created until it was firmly pointed at the dragon mother and then he forced the massive amounts of water vapour in the surrounds to escape in the only way possible. With the sound of an ocean falling onto solid ground a watery explosion of superheated vapour assaulted Tiamat forcing the goddess to instinctively close her eyes for the shortest time. That brief reflex allowed more than enough time for a crafty god to take advantage of.

The sucker punch he sent was textbook and would have been a devastating blow using only his speed and strength. However he would never let anybody accuse him of not stacking the deck and thus inches before his fist impacted with the face of the Mesopotamian goddess he altered the [mass], [velocity] while speeding up his own path through [time] by use of the Emiya crest that was still attached to his soul. A last focus of authority to the punch and he watched in something approximating horror as the shockwaves from the collision between fist and face exploded in the form of a horrifying burst of sound and light before Tiamat went rocketing towards the centre of the Pacific ocean like a falling star.

EA spun of its own will dispersing the deadly sound waves and Enki shook his hand regenerating all the superficial damage. He had miscalculated his own power with almost devastating results. That single punch rivalled, no exceeded that of the volcanic eruption at Krakatoa, and if EA had not negated the feedback then the rest of Fuyuki at a minimum would have been destroyed if not the entirety of Japan. He blanched as he remembered the impact of Tiamat against the water and he grasped EA again tightly and moved to the sight of the impact spinning and calming the innumerable ripples before they turned into destructive tidal waves. That minor matter occupied just enough his attention that he was barely able to respond to the massive hand composed of black mud that lashed out at his location with speed far surpassing the physically possible. Hurricane winds were created by its passing and once more Enki was forced to use EA again to contain the effects of the battle.

The Pacific Ocean turned black again, this time properly resisting the effects of EA, and Enki watched with some concern as dragons arose from the ocean in swarms. The pinnacle of phantasmal beasts reduced to nothing more than irritating bugs in this battle between supreme powers. Scaled engines of absolute destruction used to stall for time while Tiamat plans her next move. He refused to allow that to happen. Flexing his Authority over both water and the world he summoned countless pillars of ice down from the heavens that skewered the dragons in their dozens. However they were not his concern. Without another thought Enki dove down past the falling lizards and into the black waters below.

Coldness immediately assaulted him as soon as he entered the depths informing him that despite being in water this was not his territory. The tides turned against him and he reacted instantly as the waters bent towards him trying to crush him into paste. The black sea was a disadvantageous environment to him and so he changed it.

"[Freeze]," Enki said his calm voice resounding throughout the water backed up by both the power of the Forth True Magic and his own Authority over water. While Tiamat in theory had equal power over water he could tell that she didn't use it like he did, instead preferring to keep it in her natural state. Black water became black ice and Enki became [intangible] and allowed himself to be pulled by gravity downwards towards the hiding goddess.

What he saw when he reached the bottom was both concerning and disappointing. A modified version of Tiamat over fifty metres tall towered above him. Wings sprouted from her shoulders and her body took on a shade of crimson that reminded him of spilt blood. Her eyes flickered around before settling on his form and then she screamed, a dreadful noise with a high frequency that barely avoided reaching the decibel limit and just becoming a straight up explosion. That is not to say that Enki didn't feel like he was hit by an explosion. As the ice shattered into billions of sharp shards and he was forced backwards by the waves of force. One of the innumerable shards shot towards his eye and he flinched as reflexes he retained from his mortality caused him to blink. That was the worst move as in the next second he was hit by a passing planet and he felt his chest collapse and his organs turn to mush as he hurtled towards an uncertain destination. He never reached it as finely honed senses, only amplified by his watery location, warned him of an incoming assault and he twisted his body lashing up in time to block a massive crimson fist with his own hands.

His organs restored themselves as his body was pushed towards the seabed by the force of the dragon goddesses' punch. Pushing massive amounts [strength] into his body he barely kept his bones from fracturing under the insane force of his opponents punch until he hit the ground hard causing the rocky bottom to shatter and his body to be driven deep into the stony seabed like a nail hit by the world's most dragonlike hammer. Unfortunately he had no chance to even get his bearings as the second of the dragons hands came down.

Enki decided in that moment that he there was no way he could take another one of that and so he teleported the barest instant before her fist broke his body in two. Reappearing hundreds of metres behind her he could only watch as the punch of his giant opponent impacted against the seabed and with a blinding flash of light his body was wracked by a ferocious shockwave and all the water for miles turned to steam. Still that didn't stop him for a moment as Enki gathered the superheated steam coalescing it into a spear of boiling gas and froze.

Enki's face turned milk white as he heard a ghastly crack.

His godly senses clearly revealed that the Pacific Tectonic Plate had a new fissure running through it further than the eye could see and deeper than even he could tell. Enki gulped nervously as he once again came to the realization that they should really, really not be fighting here. Not this location but this planet. Turning on his heel he swam upwards at a speed ignoring Tiamat behind him and launching into the dawn sky. By now all the stars had faded to be replaced by the glory of the morning sun, except for one solitary celestial object. Time slowed down as Enki used both his knowledge as the god of wisdom as well as the knowledge he acquired when he was Shirou as he stared up at the far away object mentally plotting coordinates. The ripples created by the water informed him of the location of the goddess moments before she lashed out at him and he was forced to abandon his mental gymnastics to dodge her hands. The goddess paused when her attacks missed and she retreated. In the next instant a massive surge of True Ether materialised from her hand and Shirou spun EA up, bending local space-time to form a miniature singularity, to meet the all-consuming wave of energy.

For a split second the two were evenly matched and then Enki watched with pure astonishment as Tiamat moved at such tremendous speeds that she disappeared from his sight momentarily and he only managed to recapture her image a millisecond before she was in front of him crushing the singularity with one hand and with the next hand launching another blast of True Ether a few feet from his face.

"Too late," Enki said as he weathered the beam of True Ether, reaching through the blinding red light and grabbing her wrist. Drawing forth the power of the Forth True Magic once again and combining it with his Authority, so that it could actually affect the stupidly powerful dragon, he altered both of their positions to ones on which no man had tread.

In the next instant both gods disappeared from the surface of the Earth.

xxx

'The surface of Venus once you got through the hint of sulphur was a veritable paradise,' was the second though that went through Enki's head. If he was to summarize the appearance of Earth's sister planet he would use the word lush. Countless varieties of exotic and outright alien flora blossomed under the burning heat of the sun and a persistent warm mist hung over the alien landscape giving the air a sticky, muggy feel.

The first thought that went through Enki's head was something along the lines of 'pain, pain, pain, by the gods this hurts.' He hadn't realised the benefits that he had received on Earth until it suddenly disappeared and that coupled with the comparatively low concentration of True Ether made him feel like every one of his cells had been simultaneously punched. Still Tiamat would also suffer from the same drawbacks as him and the lack of True Ether wouldn't massively impede their ability to fight. Venus never developed a race that could deny the existence of the gods and thus there were still no restrictions on them. For a moment Enki contemplated just leaving Tiamat here and allowing her to recreate her own race far away from the race of humans. However a single look at Tiamat was enough to drown that thought, there was no way that she would ever cooperate with her in this matter. Even if he were to teleport back to the surface of his own planet Tiamat would swim back there and he would only have a couple of seconds at most to prepare before the fight resumed. In addition there was a chance Tiamat wouldn't even be able to be killed on Earth. It generally wasn't recommended to fight a god in their own domain and the planet Earth definitely counted as Tiamat's domain, just as much as it did his own.

Suddenly the surrounding vegetation launched towards Enki breaking his from his thoughts and forcing him to expend a slight amount of energy on his surroundings. With a wave of his hand the surrounding vegetation experienced extreme dehydration, turning brown and withered in seconds before crumbling to dust as all the water was sucked out of it. He watched as black water surrounded Tiamat and the native flora of Venus was crushed by the goddess.

That black water then launched towards him and Enki responded blocking the surge with his own wall of water and retaliating with an avalanche of ice. The next few moments could only be described as a torrent of escalation as Tiamat raised her attacks to ever greater heights to destroy the freshwater god. First tides of water, than ferocious whirlpools, then falling icebergs, then massive tidal waves, then abyssal pressure from all directions and then finally an icy meteor that fell from orbit, without fail Enki was assaulted by all of these and he repelled them magnificently using his magic to redirect the force of the damage with little care to the surrounding environment and the results clearly showed. Much of Venus' landscape was destroyed; the luscious forests replaced by miles and miles of desolate wasteland.

Shirou winced as he tore a spear of ice out of his shoulder. That last meteorite that she tossed his way could be compared to the KT extinction event and EA wasn't able to completely stop all the splinters that tore into his body. He repaired his body but the process was noticeably slower on Venus than it was on Earth. Even through all that he refused to take his eyes off the watery goddess and right now he was immensely glad he didn't. Tiamat had once more altered her features and to say Enki was not impressed with the change would be too light of a word. Where once his saltwater counterpart stood now there was only a fierce looking enormous dragon that towered over the surrounding greenery; it's very form was a perversion of Tiamat's motherly femininity. Its very form spoke of power and brutality and there was not one hint of restraint in its visage.

"So that's your answer then," Enki said with frustration in his voice. Abandoning reason and turning herself to a dragon focused only on his destruction. He was not sure if it was the atmosphere of Venus or his constant survival that put Tiamat over the edge, but in throwing away her sanity she also threw away her last chance of survival. From now on there would be no chance of reconciliation and he would destroy her as a dragon. In actuality Enki was weaker than Tiamat. It was an unavoidable truth. He was an immensely powerful god in his own right, somebody who can easily be spoken in the same breath as others such as Zeus, Amaterasu and Odin; however Tiamat was on a different level. The primordial sea was nothing less than the essence of life, the power that gave birth to all the gods. Only by drawing on the Forth Magic was he able to close the distance but he had reached his limit. In the end his limit as a god was fixed and while he had managed to overcome her husband by trickery and surprise the same thing wouldn't work on a mad dragon mother.

"So this is the where I get off," Enki mused to himself as he saw the primordial ocean spread out drowning the impossible vegetation. He leapt above the tides and came to rest on the surface of the water. Scarlet orbs stared up to the towering dragonic behemoth before closing and golden-brown eyes opened upon the scene of the destruction.

"Fuck," Shirou Inke said clutching his chest. "Is this what Type Mercury feels like all the time? I've got to give that mineral arachnid some credit for that at least." A blast of light was the only warning before the space around him disintegrated, turning everything with more than two atoms to rub together into a solitary existence.

"That wasn't very polite," Shirou said as he stood staring at the dragon mother. An instant before he had been hit by the beam of light he had removed the concept of [reality] from his very cells allowing him to slip away into imaginary number space briefly and completely avoid the attack. These higher concepts became almost trivially easy to understand when he completely merged with his past self and a frown briefly crossed Shirou's face when he realised that he wouldn't have the joy of discovering them himself. Still there were plenty of other things that were beyond even the first god of magic's knowledge and he could spend some time discovering them when he wasn't being assaulted by the mother of all life. The last thought spurred him to action and he used EA to block a blast of the black water that Tiamat fired at him. Still the waves came faster and faster as Tiamat focused her entire attention on destroying him until Shirou was forced to pull out another one of his trump cards.

"I would dodge this if I was you," Shirou said smiling at the mindless dragon. Letting go of EA and leaving the tool of his Authority to hang unsupported in the air he raised his hands in front of him. From the palms of his hand bright blue droplets of water formed. Shirou pulled his hands apart and the droplets multiplied until thousands of litres of the almost-glowing liquid was in front of him and then with a thought he directed it at the torrents of black water that Tiamat used as a method of attack. Despite the powerful Authority contained within her water every single jet of water disappeared when touched by the powerful water that was imbued by [annihilation] causing everything that it touched to not exist on a cellular level. Shirou focused on Tiamat, aiming two fingers in the shape of a gun and 'fired' sending his own jets of that destructive liquid and he was gratified to watch as the scales of his opponent burned and disappeared wherever it struck. Tiamat lost what remained of her mind and restraint at that moment and disappeared immediately from his sight, her large bulk belying the impossible speeds that she could travel at.

Shirou had no more chances to speak as he dodged the attacks of the dragon mother. The air was filled with water vapour that he had imbued with the concept of [slow] reducing her velocity by a factor of ten and he had slowed down time for himself using not only the Emiya crest that he still retained but his own control over the concept of [time]. Truth be told he he was jealous of those speeds. Tiamat was shattering the speed of light and even though Shirou could do the same due to being made from Enki his speeds were still far too low when compared to her.

A last dodge from a claw that would have left him dead and Shirou came up with his plan to kill her. When Enki had allowed himself to transition from his original self to his human self it had been because he realised that as a god he was limited; that due to his own omnipotence he could no longer improve himself. To that end this current [Shirou Inke] was the perfectly completed fusion of the two and far more skilled in the usage of the Fourth than his two predecessors. Shirou Inke clapped his hands imbuing the concept of [pain] into the soundwave. As the dragon instinctively recoiled he grabbed EA and dove down, lashing out with a punch. Even when she was in absolute agony the dragon mother still managed to block the attack one of her mountainous scaled hands. That wasn't out of Shirou's expectations and he still unleashed his full strength at the dragon which embarrassingly did fuck all to the tough goddess' gigantic hand. What did affect Tiamat was the concept of [death] that was pushed into her arm. Countless invisible lines spread out across her arm forming into abstract shapes that he couldn't see because he didn't have those stupid eyes. Still you don't need to see something to kill it and it was with that logic that Shirou drove the spinning weapon of mass destruction that was EA into the hand of the saltwater goddess.

Tiamat's arm shattered like cheap glass and the immortal goddess cried out with a painful wail that nearly burst Shirou's eardrums. Her legs, tail, head, one good arm and even the stump of her destroyed arm lashed out simultaneously imparting nigh infinite force in each direction. The destroyed landscape evaporated under this relentless barrage and Shirou wisely decided to abscond with all haste by teleporting directly upwards into the atmosphere.

"Wow," Shirou said noting that he was talking a lot for this battle, which was usually against his modus operandi. Still he had a good reason to be surprised as he watched an area greater than the size of Japan be obliterated. That wasn't the only surprise as Shirou caught the vague shapes of humongous winged things on the horizon of massive size. A dozen of them were slowly moving towards the place where the two of them were fighting and Shirou suddenly got the sensation that if they reached the two of them then things would get a lot more complicated.

Suddenly a spike of killing intent drove itself through his heart and he looked to see the saltwater goddess flying through the air causing minor hurricanes with every flap of her gigantic wings. She clutched the stump of her hand to her weirdly bountiful chest as she flew upwards with her teeth bared in rage. A nebula of black water particles surrounded her and Shirou got the feeling that if he tried entering her than he would suffer a lot more than he did previously. As the situation worsened a paradoxically bright smile came over Shirou's face as he saw the enraged dragon and he remembered all of his adventures up until now. By this point in his lifetime he was no stranger to being the underdog, humans have always survived not because they're the strongest or swiftest but the smartest. So what if he didn't have his guns, or his swords, or any of his artefacts or even Nine, he quickly made a mental note to fix Nine once he finished this fight, he'd been killing dragons since he was fifteen.

Tiamat breathed and instantly hundreds of lasers composed of True Ether blasted out causing the atmosphere. Unfortunately Shirou had already learnt how to counter this when he was still only Enki. He raised his hand touching the space in front of him and giving it different space-time coordinates and watched as the beams appeared behind the body of Tiamat slamming into the body of the goddess. The goddess screeched in pain and Shirou took advantage of that, diving forward towards the spray of black water. The spray coalesced as he knew it would and Shirou met it head on stabbing his hand forward into the wave. His despite its durability was almost immediately severed but Shirou had enough time to [freeze] the sea that was coming for him. He saw Tiamat recover and knew immediately that his time was short. Rocketing off the side of the frozen water he tore off his own frozen hand in a wild attempt to land a killing blow on Tiamat's head. He misread the situation as Tiamat opened her mouth to unleash another point blank blast of True Ether on him.

"Stupid," Shirou said both rejoicing and lamenting at the fact that his goddess opponent had been reduced to the state of a mindless beast repeating the same failed actions again and again. Using his one good hand he used the concept of [repel] on the air in front of him and then used the same concept on the air beneath his feet and launched himself upwards as the blast of True Ether exploded in Tiamat's mouth rocketing her enormous body. Despite her colossal size and the writhing of her pained body Shirou managed to reach her wings in a split second injecting [death] in her left wing before crushing it with the power of EA. Tiamat dropped from the sky and Shirou dropped with her losing his footing at the sudden drop, only barely keeping hold of EA.

Holding on tight the two warring enemies crashed into the water that covered the ground from both of their attacks and Shirou took the opportunity to give another infusion of [death] and take another chunk out of Tiamat's back. Leaking blood the dragon goddess opened her maw and released killing waves that were blocked by walls of thick ice that were thrown at the goddess when Shirou was done with them. The bloody and screaming Tiamat launched herself at Shirou. Every swipe of her hand caused hurricanes and every scream decimated hundreds of miles of the land. The water level rose to a level not seen since the time Enki had to prevent the other gods from wiping out all life and hundreds of mindless watery beasts sprung into being attacking everything around them. It was disappointing.

In the end Tiamat's final form reminded Shirou of an end game boss. She had a lot of 'health' and her 'mana' was nearly infinite. She was fast and hit hard and had a few deadly abilities but that was all she had. By turning herself into her most powerful form she had limited her intelligence to that of a beast. No not a beast, Shirou corrected himself, an automaton. Was this the curse of the gods that prevented them from changing and adapting? He hadn't seen it in Ishtar but maybe she was a special case.

His face grew grave at the thought of Ishtar and he looked at the twitching and barely alive dragon goddess. No legs or arms and most of her body was missing leaving only a damaged torso and a head that glared hatred at him from the one remaining eye. Shirou should feel angry at her but in the end all he could drum up was pity. He raised his hand to deliver the final blow and then he got a sudden chill down his bank. Looking upwards he swallowed as he saw the creatures that he had first noticed in the air, only this time they were right above the pair of them. With massive tree like wings and a torso like that of a flattened white bird the creatures were tremendous in size and a dozen of them circled the pair.

"Ultimate ones," Shirou said, finding it very odd to be using the plural form of that word. Next to him Tiamat struggled and let out a roar that sounded more like a wince of pain. Shirou watched with mute horror as a few of the smaller ones dove down grabbing the helpless dragon mother before dragging her into the air. At the same time a couple more dropped down in front of Shirou, although the Magician was not as helpless. Teleporting somewhat awkwardly to Tiamat's head Shirou performed one last infusion of [death] into the dragon mother before he brought down EA and finished her off completely.

"It's not your right to kill my mother," Shirou said to the uncomprehending Aristoteles. With those last words he left the foreign planet and returned to his own.

xxx

"I wonder if it's too late to go back to Venus," Shirou said as he looked at the carnage. Fuyuki was fucked. There was no possible way to understate how absolutely destroyed it was. If the city somehow managed to get back on its feet in a few hundred years then it would be a wonder. A motion caught his attention and he relaxed before he was knocked off his feet and onto the ground.

"You're back, Shirou," Arcueid said to him with tears in her eyes. "When she said you were dead, and I, couldn't see the body." At this point Arcueid was sobbing uncontrollably and Shirou raised his head off the concrete and kissed her head feeling like absolute shit knowing what was going to happen next.

"I missed you also Arcueid," he said smiling although there were also tears in his eyes. "Did you win?"

"It was hard Shirou but I killed him, that scorpions not going to bother humans ever again," Arcueid said smiling. "Is Ishtar," she said slightly hopefully.

"No," Shirou said flat out. "She's not." A bitter smile crossed the True Ancestors face and Shirou was quick to comfort her. "Don't worry she's a god. We don't really die we will see her again. You will see me again," Shirou said and a chill gripped Arcueid's heart.

"What did you mean Shirou," the True Ancestor said with sudden nervousness and Shirou responded with a bitter smile.

"Len," he said turning away briefly from his friend and lover. "Can you give it to me now?"

Almost immediately the familiar that once belonged to Arcueid and now to Shirou appeared in front of them with a vial in its mouth. The vial contained a black liquid that didn't look different from Tiamat's ocean but to Shirou's eyes it was far more precious. Opening it he pushed unreal amounts of prana into it before the form of Nine coalesced in front of the two of them.

"Nine," Arcueid said with a smile. She had been certain that he was dead and now that she saw him again she couldn't help but smile at the butler she had known for the last few years. However the normally sharp butler didn't respond, merely choosing to stare at Shirou uncomprehending.

"Ten, that is your name," the magician said. "Nine died Arc." A look of pain flickered on his face. "Arcueid is your master," he said pointing to the True Ancestor. "Look out for her and any of her descendants."

"Descendants," Arcueid said. "What?"

Shirou placed a hand on her stomach almost gently with a look of longing on his face. A smile lit up his face and he gave Arcueid a tender kiss.

"Descendants," he repeated. "I blame Ishtar for making me forget the birth control. He's still okay, although I would advise less exercise for the rest of the pregnancy.

"Descendants," Arcueid said pulling Shirou into a hug that would have crushed the bones of any lesser being. Shirou tolerated while smiling.

"Len," he said facing the white cat that had so faithfully served as his familiar. "You belong to Satsuki now. She will give you the prana that you need."

"What?" Arcueid said, once again getting that incredible feeling of wrongness. "Wait why would you do that? You've always liked Len."

"Arcueid," Shirou said not even trying to hold back his tears. "I'm a god. The age of gods is over."

"No,' Arcueid said reflexively. "No, no, no," she said after a long period of silence. "No you can do something. Get a fake body or something. Fix the atmosphere so that gods can…"

"Arcueid!" Shirou said raising his voice. "I fought my entire life to prevent humanity from being oppressed by gods." He gestured towards a spinning EA. "If I were to allow the environment to remain as is then humans would be ruled over as slaves by the gods within a week. As for creating a body it's impossible. As long as I remember that I'm a god then I would still be a god even if I tried to make myself forget then I would remember the first time I saw my own concept."

"We can, we can," Arcueid said frantically. "We need you Shirou. Both of us need you," she said clutching her stomach. "Please don't leave us."

Shirou walked forward and hugged her. There was not a lot of time left. He could already feel the various gods start to press against the textures of the World. At the rate that EA was removing the godly atmosphere he would honestly have less than five minutes left in the world. There was a lot you could do in five minutes. He could remind Illya to properly process his will. He could leave something behind for humanity or bestow some blessing on a family like the ones he bestowed on both Yukika and Kaede. He could even probably use EA to recreate Fuyuki. On second thoughts maybe not, EA was already working pretty hard right now. In the end he decided to spend the remaining five minutes with his lover, which was why he was so surprised when Arcueid pulled away.

"I get it," Arcueid said still teary eyed. "The survival of the human race is more important."

"Arcueid," Shirou said trying to console her.

"No Shirou," Arcueid refuted and there was determination behind her tears. "I'm in agreement with you. I would hope that I would be strong enough to do the same thing if I was in the same position."

"Arcueid," Shirou repeated. "I…"

"What do you need me to do Shirou?" Arcueid said.

"Guide them," Shirou immediately said. "Help them. You're a good person Arcueid. Don't restrain that aspect of yourself and I have faith that you'll do okay. We will meet again," he said with all the weight of a prophecy.

"That's great," Arcueid said as a tentative smile showed up on her face.

"You can also give this to Illya," Shirou said to Arcueid as he literally yanked off the Emiya crest. "I've got some good use out of it and I'd like for it not to get lost."

"I'll do that," Arcueid said with a brittle smile.

"There's some time left," Shirou said. "We can still hug some more."

As soon as he said that he was once again engulfed in the hug of the last True Ancestor. Well maybe the second last True Ancestor he thought as he wrapped her arms around her. He was never going to see him grow up. He opened his mouth to ask Arcueid for any thoughts for a name and then closed it in self-disgust. At that moment he plain hated himself for what he was going to do. In an unbearably short time Shirou felt the last of the True Ether leave the world and his body started to fade.

"No," Arcueid said her voice barely more than a whisper at this point and Shirou got to watch the heartrending sight of her breaking. The last sight he saw before he disappeared entirely was the True Ancestor collapse to her knees.

xxx

Akasha the infinite realm above all others, a place beyond time and space was awfully lonely. Shirou stood in the middle of infinite space with nothing except EA by his side watching reality, more specifically the reality that he had just left. This was the place where he had first met the mysterious being that called himself Inke, the being that would be a future version of him most likely. 'He should probably get around to doing that sometime,' he thought to himself as he watched the Fuyuki fire and the child Shirou.

Glancing around at the singular timeline, he noticed countless balls of translucent light leaving the lostbelt from all periods of time. Billions of them were leaving and returning to the root where they would once again become nothing and then return as blank souls. A sudden familiar soul got his attention and he focused on it, realising that he had seen it before. While souls were not his specialty, being part of the Third True Magic, he found himself unable to forget this soul as it was part of such a monumental if unhappy event. Namely the first time that he had ever used the Forth True Magic directly on a person. Visions of a raven haired girl that sat with him for tea and his unwarranted harshness flashed through his mind and then his mouth formed its first smile in a long time.

"I did say we'd meet again," Shirou said his hopeful voice unimaginably loud in the airless soundless place. "I wasn't lying. We'll meet again. All of us will meet again."

He grabbed EA firmly and held it up, the orphaned part of him reading his mind and spinning in anticipation as it eagerly began to draw more and more of his power. Shirou Inke smiled up at the Authority that was once part of Enki, the ability to create and destroy worlds and then with a grin that contained untold amounts of joy he brought it down.

 **Author Note: This chapter took me so long to write. I'm actually exhausted. Only the epilogue left and then I can finally say that I've finished my first story. Yay.**

 **silversen11: Caubac Alcatraz. A vampire who** **turned himself into a padlock and** **sealed himself in a labyrinth inside of a treasure chest without any source of blood and yet still has enough ability to phone Arcueid and troll her. He's basically Zelretch's buddy.**


	72. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

A windowless room sat in near complete darkness, silent except for the faint sounds of breath and the rustling of sheets. If somebody of superhuman eyesight, enough to see perfectly in just a few lumens, were to enter the room they might be able to see clearly enough to see just how large the room actually was. In terms of surface area it easily outclassed that one of the Olympic swimming pools of the Old World, but still less than any competitive pools in the New World. However the floor size of the floor space paled in comparison to the height of the room. Twenty two stories above the ground the ceiling rested with no apparent means of support beyond the four walls in a manner that would make an engineer throw up their hands in defeat. Attached along the walls sporadically were platforms the size of an average room, over sixty in number with no visible support beyond the thin stretch of wall they connected to. Lastly about a dozen platforms hovered in midair, as if abandoning physics entirely, with no sign of technological or arcane aid.

All of the platforms had different furnishings. Some were easily identifiable and fulfilled the roles of entertainment rooms, some bathrooms, some dining rooms, but there were a lot whose functions were more esoteric and difficult to discern. At the very highest point of the room one last platform larger than most at almost fifty square metres sat attached to the corner of the room. What set this specific space apart was the fact that it alone was occupied. A single female lay on curled up on the bed in deep slumber. Her periwinkle hair that normally hung all the way to her shoulders instead was strewn haphazardly over her face. Her face couldn't be called anything less than beautiful. In fact the absolutely textbook symmetry of her face combined with the utter lack of flaws gave her an almost inhuman sense of perfection.

Suddenly with no prior warning or visible light source the room brightened over a period of ten seconds turning the almost pitch room into a domicile that shone with the brightness of a cloudless morning. Barely a few seconds afterwards a pair of lavender eyes snapped open darting around the room before the woman in one fluid motion disentangled herself from the covers of her bed and landed gracefully on her feet. She stood at five and a half feet and her looks alone made her seem like a young woman just stepping into adulthood. Her clothes were made of a strange substance, far closer to plastic than any other material although still divergent. This material was fashioned into a black suit and black pants as well as both boots and gloves. A golden cape that hung from her shoulders was the only break from the dark theme she had going on. She glanced towards the wall and prana gathered at her fingertips for a moment before she released it in a formless mass to strike the wall. A second later a giant holographic clock face appeared on the wall indicating to her that her 'alarm' had woken her up at the correct time.

"Maybe I have been working too hard lately," the blue haired woman muttered to herself. She scanned the room until her sharp eyes locked onto one of the platforms eight stories below her. With no more difficulty then walking down a flight of stairs she leapt off the side of the platform and fell down eight stories until she landed with absurd elegance on the platform she had chosen. This particular platform consisted of nothing more than an overlarge monitor and a comfortable looking chair. Upon sitting down on it holographic images appears around her and she touched them causing images to flip through the monitor. After a few seconds of looking she leaned back with a dismayed look on her face.

"Oh no," she said to herself leaning back into the chair with a hand over her head. On the screen was a timetable showing the various functions that demanded her attention. For the next five days every block on her schedule was full but all of her appointments stopped abruptly on the sixth day leaving only empty blocks from the fifth of Chaos 856. However it wasn't the unreasonably busy schedule that bothered the blue haired woman but the name that occupied the current spot.

Bursting into motion the woman leapt from platform to platform until she reached an unassuming area with a lot of cupboards. With the certainty of one long familiar with the layout of her house she wrenched open a specific cupboard and made a grab for a tube. Sticking her finger in the tube that proudly proclaimed to be 'Sleep in a bottle, equivalent to seven hours of uninterrupted sleep,' she licked the powder off her fingers and instantaneously new levels of awareness entered her eyes.

"Amora Vega," the purple eyed woman said to herself, repeating the name of the woman with which she had and appointment. She was particularly hard for her to deal with, but as a definite upside she was wouldn't get upset at her for being late. Running her hands through her hair the woman looked into the closest mirror and tried to look more presentable before giving up that as a bad job. Almost sprinting she leapt upwards rebounding off the wall and landing on one of the floating platforms that was filled with complex machinery filled with tubes and lights that coalesced into a large device around the centre of the platform. Striding to the middle of the platform, denoted by a perfect circle, she clapped her hands and watched as red lights lit up one by one until they all flashed green indicating readiness.

"The temple of Ishtar," she spoke clearly enunciating her destination and for a brief moment she connected with something bigger and then with a flash of light she disappeared from the room.

xxx

On all lists comprising the most beautiful buildings in the world the temple of Ishtar always had a spot. To be more precise the first temple of Ishtar always had a spot. While there were many subsidiary temples none of them had the history and power of the first. None of them possessed anything close to the quality and quality of the various sculptures, paintings, flora and other works of art that had been purchased by, or more often donated to the temple.

"Now if only so many of them were not risqué," the visitor to the temple thought as she passed another priceless statue depicting somebody, a pair of somebodies in fact, who proudly displayed the gifts the gods had given them. Still she had to compliment the landscaper. While they were certainly not her cup of tea she had to admit that the hedges were created with wonderful detail. She even passed a playground for children, although she had no idea who in the name of the gods would even bring a child this close to the den of depravity.

She picked up the pace a little bit. Teleportation directly into Ishtar's temple was not allowed, except for those closest to Amora and she couldn't count herself among the number. As a consequence she was forced to teleport to the array just outside and walk the rest of the way. The temple was relatively quiet however, devoid of the usual hustle and bustle of people travelling far and wide to worship Ishtar and those who sought out the temple for more secular reasons.

"I guess Amora would rather have people focusing on the Exodus than the daily operations of the church," the blue haired woman said looking at a sign that announced that the temple would be closed for the foreseeable future. She narrowed her eyes at the realisation that the foreseeable future could be for a very long time considering the Exodus. A sigh escaped her as she realised that all of these priceless sculptures and the beautiful landscaping would be gone forever along with any of the other artworks that were left behind.

As she approached the main entrance a dozen tiny hovering orbs with white lights hovered around her observing her from any angle causing the blue haired lady to raise an eyebrow at the spectacle. ID Bots were basic level of security in every home but even then she didn't think she'd ever see Amora ascribe to it considering a fairly consistent policy of hers was to take anybody in.

"Lila Inke for her appointment with Amora Vega," the aforementioned Lila said in a clipped tone. Immediately the ID bots scattered returning to her station and the finely decorated wooden door swung open. A scarlet carpet greeted her and Lila gladly took that invitation stepping forward into an enormous hallway with only one occupant.

"Can I take the lady's cape," a black haired and black eyed young man said. Despite his appearance he wasn't human. Anything more than a surface look would reveal the swirling chaos beneath that façade of humanity.

"Good morning 32," Lila said, declining his offer with a simple hand gesture. The golden cape was her symbol of office and it would not be wholly appropriate for her to discard it, especially for a formal meeting. She had no desire to turn this into an informal meeting, especially with Amora. She knew from second hand information how those turned out.

"Very good," 32 said directing her to follow him "Mistress Vega has been looking forward to speaking with you."

"Is that so," Lila said keeping a professional tone.

"Indeed," 32 said with some amusement. "Mistress in fact went as far as to request I kidnap you if you back out at the last moment."

"What?" Lila said whipping her head back to the Chaosborn. It was such a ridiculous thing to say to the Chairman of the United Earth Organisation. Even though she effectively only had five days left in office it was still beyond belief that she could even think about that. That was Amora for you she supposed. Even if she did that then she probably would get off with no more than a reprimand even from her own clan. The High Priestess of Ishtar had built so much goodwill over her seven hundred plus years that only existences such as General Satsuki or the White Queen herself could boast more influence. On top of that 32 was an insanely low number for a Chaosborn. For a species that naturally grew stronger as they aged any individual with a two digit name could be considered a monstrous existence. While Lila was by no means weak, being a member of the Inke clan indicated at least some combat proficiency, she was primarily an administrator.

"So how long have you worked with her," Lila said making small talk as they walked through the various corridor and empty rooms. Belatedly she realised that the various priceless artworks littered throughout the church were still in their normal place. From the looks of it Amora had done nothing to prepare for the Exodus.

"I've been partnered with Mistress since the Tumultuous Times," 32 said calmly as if it were no small feat.

"Really," Lila responded reaffirming her impression of 32 as a particularly powerful Chaosborn. The Tumultuous Times were the 150 years after the gods clashed and the world ruptured, a time that was characterised by natural disasters, a surge of dangerous new creatures and a total collapse of most of the ruling structures. Anybody who survived that hell was immediately worthy of her respect.

"Just through here," 32 said breaking up her thoughts as he pointed to a reddish wooden door. He bowed as he held the handle of the door and opened it up for Lila.

"Thank you," Lila said inclining her head slightly in respect to the Chaosborn. Stepping through the door her eyes roved over the exquisite furniture and then stopped.

Lying on a nearby divan was a creature of such unsurpassed perfection that Lila's breath hitched. Even today when science and magic had advanced to such an extent that flesh could easily be shaped as one desired, she still stood heads and shoulders above them with a beauty that transcended mortal science. And nearly inch her lustrous ochre skin of was laid bare to Lila's eyes.

"Can't you put some clothes on," Lila said, irritation coating every syllable. In front of her reclining like some ancient goddess was the revered founder of the Church of Ishtar one of the foremost powers in the world dressed in a negligible amount of 'clothing' that somehow managed to be more enthralling than if she had chosen to wore nothing at all.

"Oh you're here Lila," the priestess said sitting up straighter and stretching, her every move doing seductive things to Lila's eyes. "You look tired, have you been getting enough sleep," she said as she stared into her eyes, those green orbs sharp and staring directly into her own. Lila kept her eyes firmly on those bright green eyes, because if she didn't then her eyes would fall to her body and Amora would likely take that as an invitation. After a moment she leant back in her seat with her golden hair beneath her like a bed of flowers.

"You're too uptight," Amora said pouting at Lila with playful seductiveness. "Besides I wear clothes like this all the time. There's no law against it."

"Only because you've quashed any public decency law that has been attempted in the last five centuries," Lila retorted instantly.

'That's true," she said with a laugh like a mountain stream. "Would you like some wine," she said gesturing to a red bottle in ice containing some form of alcoholic beverage that Lila didn't drink at all.

"No thanks," Lila Inke said stiffly holding up her hand in a clear sign of refusal. "Why did you make an appointment with me," she said changing the subject.

Amora sighed and then she moved. In an instant she had disappeared from the divan and Lila felt a chill go down her back. The High Priestess, a being that had survived the Tulmultuous Times, a human that had fought in the war of the Eight Agressors, one of the most powerful people in the world was right behind her. Suddenly she felt dainty hands upon her shoulders and running over her bank and she almost went limp at the sensation. Tension that she didn't even know she had bled out of her as dozens of days of stress were coaxed out by the masterful hands of the woman behind her. A moan slipped from her lips and she faintly tried to resist before she gave up completely at the ministrations. After hours of massage, that only in actuality lasted half an hour at most, she staggered away feeling the collective aches and pains that had followed her for the past few days now disappear.

"Please don't do that again," Lila said hating how her voice seemed more timid than usual.

"You need to learn how to relax," Amora said and in the next instant she was sitting up on the divan again, having moved faster than Lila could perceive. She leaned forward causing Lila's gaze to dive towards her perfect breasts despite her best efforts to stop it. "I think that the dissolution of the United Earth Organisation would be good for you," Amora said before she sighed. "Even so I have no doubt that you will join whatever organisations replace it, but there's nothing I can do but pray to Ishtar that you will learn to take care of yourself someday."

An awkward silence filled the room as Lila stared at her before she herself sighed and sat down in one of the nearby sofas. That was the true face of Amora and the primary reason why so many people over the centuries loved her. Once you got past the amount of sex she had and caused to happen you got a diehard utilitarian, a person who tries her best to make everybody happy.

"Pray to Ishtar while on your back you mean," Lila said giving a tentative smile. There was a moment's silence and then Amora burst out laughing.

"There are many positions from which I worship our Lady Ishtar," Amora said trying to unsuccessfully stifle her laughter. "On my knees, on my side… in fact why don't I show you how I worship her one day?"

"Maybe another day," Lila said shaking her head at the thought of worship Amora would show her. "By the way may I ask why you haven't prepared for the Exodus? I hope you aren't intending on leaving all these irreplaceable gifts you've accepted throughout the years. While I am aware that you own them, I do not believe you have the right to leave behind such precious treasures to humanity."

"Oh," Amora said raising an eyebrow at the tirade Lila went on. "Oh," she repeated as sudden comprehension hit her. "Don't worry there's no way I'm leaving this behind. The entire temple will go with us."

"What?" Lila said embarrassingly loud. The temple of Ishtar was the second largest temple in the world, exceeded only by that of the White Queen. To actually move the whole temple would have required enormous amounts of preparation as well as huge amounts of time and money. "How?"

"The temple was always built to be relocated," Amora said and with a single gesture a holographic image appeared. A perfect disc on which all the temple grounds sat with a large collection of thrusters and anti-gravity technology beneath the rock on which the temple lay.

"But this temple was built four hundred years ago," Lila said trying to wrap her head around it. "How could you have known?"

"I am a priestess of Ishtar," Amora said with a grin. "Lady Ishtar has informed me about the Exodus since before you were born."

"The gods truly are powerful," Lila said, because what else could she say in that situation. It was an objective truth that even the most powerful mortal General Satsuki by her own admission, was weaker than the White Queen.

"She also told me something else at that time," Amora said and there was a slight hesitation when she said that. "She said that around the time of the Exodus the last of the gods would leave."

"The White Queen's leaving," Lila said, no longer even bothering to hold back her exclamation of surprise. "Wait, how long have you known about this? Why am I only hearing about this now?"

"For a few hundred years," Amora said almost flippantly. "Don't look at me like that," she said at Lila's look of disgust. "There's no point worrying about it. Just relax and let it happen."

"And you don't think that this could have been something that you could have told us so that we could have maybe convinced her," Lila basically spat out.

"So that you could try coercing a god," Amora stated still quite tranquil.

"We wouldn't but we could have… we need her," Lila said trying to phrase her reply in a less sacrilegious way.

"No we don't really," Amora rebutted. "Even without being physically present both Lady Ishtar and Lord Inke manage to help humanity. I have no doubt that Lady Brunestud will be the same."

"I'll have to try and convince her not to go," Lila said firmly. While she could understand Amora's point of view it still would not be in humanity's best interests to retain the White Queen. Technically what she was doing could count as blasphemy but she still had to give it a try.

"If you're so determined then you could try asking those that are closer to her for help," Amora said still reclining in a pose that she probably thought was… no a pose that was definitely arousing.

"Those that are close to her," Lila spoke to herself as she thought furiously. Despite being a descendant of the White Princess she had only met her when she originally was appointed to the Chairman seat twenty-six years ago and the conversation was stinted and formal. Resolve entered her eyes as she realised that the older Inkes as well as some of the Descendants may be able to do a far better job than her.

Suddenly her phone rang up and she glanced towards it to discover she received a new space-time key. These codes were used to break through space-time locks that served as the security for standard teleportation arrays. Lila looked up to see Amora give her the thumbs up.

"Just in case you want to come over and have some fun," Amora said giving her a sultry look. At Lila's flat look she gave her a grin. "Not like that you degenerate. We could watch a movie or something."

Lila sighed shaking her head at the older but also more beautiful woman. Thankfully the arrival of the code also gave her some options with her departure and with a single word she connected to the Standard Earth Teleportation Array and she was gone from the room.

xxx

The next place she arrived at she did have the space-time key for. The Inke compound was sort of a meeting place for any of the other descendants of Kuro Inke, the sole child of Arcueid Brunestud and Shirou Inke, and a portion of money from each and every Inke went monthly in order to pay for the maintenance and expansion of the compound. Normally there would be at least a dozen Inkes, eating, conversing, or enjoying the recreational facilities, but today a brief look at the real time map indicated that there were only two signs of life in the building and only one of them was recorded as an Inke. It was a sobering realisation that the majority of Inkes would probably be the ones on the front lines of the Exodus.

"The diner," Lila spoke out loud before disappearing and reappearing in that location. The sight that she saw made her raise an eyebrow in surprise. Sitting at one of the tables with a large milkshake in his hand and a plate full of streaky bacon in front of him was Dorado Inke, one of the three children of Kuro Inke. If there ever was an Inke that lived up to his name it was Dorado. Gold eyes and flaxen hair and an olive body that boasted incredible musculature. In fact the only not golden thing about him was the white mostly-unbuttoned shirt that he wore and a pair of black leather pants. There was a semi-pervasive rumour in the wider community about Inkes in general having a weak body to offset their greater magical powers and minds but Dorado seemed to mock those rumours.

In fact the reason for those rumours was sitting next with him at the table. Valerie Brunestud was also a child of Arcueid Brunestud, except for the fact that the father was not Shirou Inke but another man. Without the genes of that specific god the offspring were entirely different, forming a clan that was called the Descendants. Nearly all of the descendants boasted incredibly strong bodies and they all had the ability to control nature to some extent, even on other planets. There was generally a rivalry between the two clans, albeit one that only the younger members indulged in. Lila was even slightly embarrassed to admit she had competed furiously against members of the Descendants when she was younger. T

"Lila what are you doing here," Dorado said standing up from the table and gesturing to an empty seat. "Come sit down order something." A sharp whistle and a nearby robot waiter appeared at top speed. "How can I help you?"

Normally an Inke would make excuses if they were seen with a member of the Descendants despite it not being illegal or even openly discouraged. The persistent rivalry, despite being childish, would likely have discouraged any other member of the clan from meeting their friends there let alone the head of the rival clan. Dorado however, was both the patriarch of the clan and was one of the rare people that had lived in the Tulmultous Times. It would be a bold person who tried to judge him.

"You look panicked Lila," Valerie said sipping at her tea. "Did something happen?" Red eyes examined her lazily. The Descendant was rather petite and looked much younger than actual six hundred years. In fact in appearances alone she looked a lot like a mini- Arcueid Brunestud, even if her aura was much weaker. She was dressed in an outfit that could only be described as gothic Lolita and Lila always felt it weird that a descendant of the goddess Brunestud would adorn herself in the fetishware of a stereotypical vampire.

"I was visiting Amora," she started and immediately felt a twinge of annoyance as she saw them both nod as if they understood the situation. She and the High Priestess didn't get along that badly; there was an actual important reason for her to be panicked, dammit. "Amora said that Arcueid Brunestud will soon leave us."

The reaction was instant. Valerie immediately dropped her tea, causing the cup to shatter on the ground and lose its contents, and she checked her ears as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing. Dorado's reaction wasn't as pronounced. He sat down in his chair and stared down at the table.

"If Amora says it then it's most likely true," he said after a scant few seconds. "I trust you haven't misinterpreted it to mean that she will leave the planet." Lila opened her mouth thinking back to the conversation before. "No you haven't," Dorado said. "Once again the High Priestess wouldn't allow any such misunderstanding to arise. "No what we most probably have is a god returning to the other two of her own free will."

"But why would mom leave now all of a sudden?" Valerie asked.

"It is most likely due to the Exodus," Dorado stated logically. "Either she believes we no longer need her or she has decided that with the Exodus it would be more efficient to watch over us from the Volana realm."

"Are those the only two options," Lila said sceptically.

"No, there could be no correlation between the Exodus and her departure. Events never happen without a reason but there could be hundreds of small reasons or larger ones that could convince her that it is her time to go," Dorado Inke said taking another sip of his milkshake.

"I was hoping to convince her not to leave," Lila said taking a step back as two incredulous faces turned towards her. "I know how that sounds like, but I just feel that humanity will be far weaker without her. Especially as we don't know what's out there in the darkness."

"So you don't believe that humans can handle it," Dorado Inke said picking up a rasher of bacon and crunching it beneath his teeth. Next to him Valerie took another cup of tea from a nearby serving robot, but he eyes never left her as she awaited her answer. Of course when Dorado said human he was referring to the broader designation. For the purposes of the United Earth Organisation 'human' referred to vanilla humans, chaosborn, both the Inke and Descendants clans, any of the above that have modified themselves to the point they are genetically divergent, and any sapient Phantasmal Beasts.

"It isn't that I believe humans can't handle it," Lila started very aware that she was speaking to the patriarch of her clan about their mutual ancestor. "I believe we will be able to handle any threat from the stars in the same way we handed any previous threats with our power, our determination and by spending countless lives," she said ominously. "Before the Vampire Incursion and the fight between Tiamat and Inke there were supposed to be six and a half billion humans but now after the Tumultuous Times and the War of the Eight Aggressors the population doesn't even sit at one sixth of that. The world population is persistently slow to recover these days and I'm scared that another disaster like the ones above could inflict irreparable damage on the remainder of humanity."

"You're pretty sincere," Dorado said with a sigh. "While I will miss the presence of the White Queen, I am not going to try and convince her to stay against her will. Have you thought about maybe asking anybody else to support your crusade?"

"I have considered asking General Satsuki," Lila admitted. The general was not currently on the planet but Lila was sure that she could teleport back for something so important.

"Good idea," Dorado Inke said before he fell silent for a bit. "I can think of a few others that were close to her." At the interested looks of both Valerie and Lila he elaborated. "Both the Agency of Determination and Choice possess leaders that fought with her during the Vampire Incursion. The head of the Emiya Corporation is also familiar with the White Queen from what I remember."

"That is quite a list of names you have there," Lila said after a brief moment of trying to wrap her head around it.

The Agency of Choice and The Agency of Determination were two of the most secretive and mysterious societies on Earth. Established over five hundred years ago, their investors included older members of the Inke and Descendants clans as well as senior members from the three churches and other famous individuals. The organisations remained privately owned to this day and only a few of their members remained publically known. The heads of both of these organisations were not known and the operations are not fully known except for the fact that Choice had something to do with parallel worlds and Determination had something to do with time.

The Emiya Corporation on the other hand were well known to everybody. They were a company that had expanded during the Tumultuous Times, spreading wherever the White Queen walked. While they supplied food and materials during those early unpleasant years, once the Tumultuous Times were over they transitioned into something far bigger. The Immortal Bodies that every human could choose to receive once they had grown tired of having offspring was one of the things they supplied, gaining them huge amounts of goodwill from many human over the age of a hundred and still breathing. The second great invention of the clan was even more incredible. An artificial core was implanted inside a human and that core would sprout pseud-spiritual nerves throughout the entire body that allowed the human to use magic and grew with them. Based on the magical core of a dragon and embedded in much the same way as the magical crests in the olden time, these Crest Wyrms have ensured that one hundred percent of the humans have the ability to use magic.

Of course as a member of the Inke clan she didn't need either the Immortal Bodies or the Crest Wyrms to survive. She was perfectly capable of attaining immortality on her own and the magic circuits she inherited from birth were naturally stronger than those generated from the Crest Wyrms.

"I'll need to set up an interview with them," Lila said mentally calculating the amount of work she would need to do.

"No need," Valerie said putting down her tea as she did so. "I'm friends with the head of the Emiya clan. I can just tell her directly."

"Are you sure," Lila said somewhat hesitantly. The best case scenario would be if she could talk to the head herself. However time didn't permit considering the Exodus was only in five days.

"I can talk to the head of Choice," Dorado said. "We've met a few times in the past and got along reasonably well. Unfortunately the head of Determination and I do not get along." Dorado sighed at the curious looks from the other two. "It's not something I'm going to get into. Her name is Aoko Aozaki and she lives at Falls End," he finished off as he typed something into his phone.

"Huh," Lila said as she received the address from Dorado. "I never really thought that one of the spooks from Determination would live in a tourist town. That's quite a nice location." She returned her phone to her pocket. "I'll go see her after I've contacted General Satsuki."

"Good luck," Valerie said saluting her before she disappeared from the room.

"She even has the space-time code for the Inke compound," Lila said looking at Dorado who didn't avert his eyes at all.

"The code's only valid for five more days and the number of Inkes on this planet is in the single digits already," Dorado said finishing off his plate of bacon. "We've always had the bad habit of going to the most exciting places," he said with a nostalgic smile. "Arcueid Brunestud was spotted in Winterwood city recently. I'll probably see you there then. Good luck."

Lila Inke walked out of an empty room. She flicked through her list of contacts. Fortunately General Satsuki was employed by the United Earth Organisation and thus she had some means of communicating with her when necessary. She had spoken to her a few times and the woman was mostly brusque and a bit standoffish with her.

Flipping through her phone until she got to the number in question she barely hesitated before tapping the number and dropping her phone to the floor. Stepping backwards she watched as her phone stopped inches before the ground and hovered. A standard dialling noise appeared before a light shone from the phone showing a woman with maroon hair and blood red eyes. Her hair was shoulder length and that combined with the incredibly sharp black business suit she was wearing gave her the impression of overwhelming formality. This was General Satsuki's second in command and a legend in her own right Lieutenant General Bazett.

"Lila Inke," she said inclining her head slightly in respect. "May I ask why you have called, Mam?"

"I hoped to discuss something with General Satsuki," Lila started before the thought struck her. "Excuse me for asking but how well are you connected with the White Queen."

"Arcueid Brunestud," Bazett said slowly. "I have met her a few times but if you want somebody who is intimately familiar with her then you were right to call Satsuki. Unfortunately she is sleeping at the moment. How time critical is this?"

"I'm not sure," Lila started. "I heard from Amora that Lady Brunestud will soon be leaving."

"A god bestowed prophecy I suppose," Bazett said. "Amora's information normally checks out. I'll wake up Satsuki." Without an instant's pause she disappeared and Lila once again realised that she was moving far too fast for her eyes to track.

"I really need to do some training or improve my magic or something after the Exodus," Lila said to herself. It was very easy to forget the sheer power of those that had lived through the last eight hundred and fifty years. She was by no means weak but the distance between merely above the average and strong was a massive gulf and none of the people that she had been talking to recently could just be described as strong.

"Arc's leaving!" these words came from somewhere offscreen and a brown haired young-looking woman dressed in black trenchcoat over a military uniform decked out in medals appeared in the hologram from seemingly nowhere.

"Explain," she commanded with arms crossed, staring dispassionately at the younger Inke.

Hearing her words Lila immediately began to break into a long explanation. While in theory she was actually her employer, rank had very little to do with anything when your conversant was General Satsuki, the Aristoteles killer and the strongest human on Earth. General Satsuki listened to her, not interrupting the entire time as she told of her visit to Amora and to the Inke compound. After the explanation the General stood there for a short while digesting the information.

"Bazett, we're returning to Earth," Satsuki called out to the offscreen vampire.

"Really," Bazett said as the hologram expanded to include the vampire that was walking towards them. "You realise its multiple light years between Earth and us." The vampire was correct to sound disbelieving. Teleporting without an array was one of the hardest things to do and there was no array between that quadrant of space and Earth. Not even taking into account the toll that the distance would take on a person's body. Just accurately calculating the exact location would be nearly impossible. Maybe she could ask for guidance from Lord Inke. It was an open secret that the god of magic had a hand in the creation of the teleportation systems.

"Of course," Satsuki said, responding with a smirk that Lila found weird on the normally serious woman's face.

"That's going to be a pretty rough ride," Bazett said shaking her head. "Thank you for telling us," she said turning to Lila. "Goodbye."

"Wait," Lila said, but she was speaking to the empty compound. "I wanted to ask you to convince her to stay."

Sighing Lila raised her hand and the phone came to it before she pocketed it. Her next stop was Aozaki Aoko, the head of the mysterious Agency of Determination. She felt the connection to the Earth Spatial transportation establish seconds before she too disappeared from the compound.

xxx

Falls End could best be described as the tourism capital of the Asian Continent. The place was famed as the battlefield that Type Jupiter was defeated and a thriving tourism industry grew around it. She had grown up listening to stories about the legendary battle. Apparently General Satsuki had launched the blow that had crushed it but the Aristoteles refused to go gently and tried to detonate itself. It was at that point that Lady Brunestud launched the creature into orbit forcing it to go critical in the Exosphere and saving the surrounding areas. In appreciation a large statue of both General Satsuki and Arcueid Brunestud were built.

"Have a nice day Madam Chairman," a fresh faced youngster that looked barely out of his sixties said to her. She smiled back at him. It was rather nice to be looked up to after the day she's had. Despite her relatively low level of power she did occupy a rather esteemed position; and her power was not low, she was above average.

She took back her passport and double-checked the address on her phone confirming the closest route to her destination. Falls End was quite a party town and stood in stark contrast to the other places that she visited today in that there were actually people there, if in fewer numbers. Revellers littered the streets flitting from one venue of entertainment to the next. Of course any of the celebrators that came for the museums and other places of culture would be disappointed. All items deemed of an irreplaceable cultural significance were already taken.

Lila walked past another group of youths who offered her some alcoholic beverage and she sighed as she remembered that these festivities of this place would be gone within five days. Still the decision was made and all humanity chose to abide by it. It is quite a sobering thought to have your own planet cry for your death and despite their proven ability to subjugate it the collective surviving humans just decided to leave.

Her melancholy filled thoughts distracted her so much that she barely recognized that she had arrived at the location. At first glance the house looked much the same as any of the other houses; a pearly white exterior with blue non-reflective windows and a decorative wooden door. However as she looked closer the house began to look more and more suspicious. No bounded field existed around the house; which was normal in a city like Falls End. The house was well maintained and had no visible damage and there were no ornaments. Despite looking at the house she couldn't for the life of her determine what made it so disquieting.

"It's a curse," the voice of a female said from next to her and Lila almost jumped out of her skin as she saw a red-haired beautiful woman next to her dressed in blue jeans and a white t-shirt. "The curse beguiles anybody who is looking for me to continue observing the house. Trapped like flies in honey I will then come and interrogate them. However in this case it would be pointless." The lady smiled. "Hello Lila Inke. I believe you have been looking for me."

"Are you Aoko Aozaki," Lila said guardedly.

"That is the name my parents gave me," she said turning around and walking to a nearby house. "Come in and have a cup of tea.

"You own this house," Lila said as she entered a fairly standard room except for the above average amounts of clocks showing different times. There were also a handful of screens dotted throughout the room with a specific number of years and days counting down. Lila inspected a few of them before moving to catch up with Aoko.

"So you own this building as well," Lila said making conversation.

"I own all the buildings within this block," Aoko said leading her into a dining room dominated by a large antique table with intricate carvings. The table was far too large to be for one person and Lila wondered if this was used as a meeting place for The Agency of Determination.

"I'm afraid The Agency of Determination has a membership of one," Aoko said once more accurately predicting Lila's thoughts. "When I'm in need of more help I just perform the servant summoning ritual."

"What?" Lila said as she stared in disbelief. The servant summoning ritual was a notorious ritual from before the Tumultuous Times. The only surviving knowledge about it was from a hand written journal from Lord Inke himself. While servants were not as undefeatable as before the cataclysm due to the vastly increased strength of present humanity, their Noble Phantasms that represented the best of mankind was enough that only the supremely confident would ever attempt to fight them, and hence due to the danger all servant summoning were strictly controlled. Still that wasn't the only reason that they weren't summoned. The prana costs of their upkeep were prohibitive and so only a few non-combat servants had actually been ever summoned and mantained; the most famous among them was William Shakespeare who maintained a constant existence at Dragons Blood city, beguiling people of all ages with his works, both new and old.

Lila was snapped out of her thoughts by the arrival of another basic serving robot carrying two cups of steaming hot tea. Lila tentatively sipped at her cup and was surprised to find that the tea was made exactly to her specifications. Either this Aoko was very good at guessing or she somehow knew the exact way that she liked her tea. Eying up the head of Determination she tried to get take her measure only to be treated by a smile and a knowing wink from the woman opposite the table.

"There's no need to panic," she said taking a gulp of her tea. "We still have plenty of time before the event."

"What event?" Lila said leaning forward trying to understand what the woman was saying.

"The event," Aoko said putting down her cup. "The very one that you've come to tell me about; the event where the last of the gods will leave Earth."

"You know about it?" Lila said asking an obvious question. She was aware that Amora occasionally gave accurate prophecies but she had no idea that The Agency of Determination also had the ability to predict the future. She didn't even know anything about the organisation today. Unusual times really do bring knowledge into one's grasp.

"Do you have any way to stop it?" Lila asked bluntly.

"Why are you so focused on stopping it," Aoko said putting down her tea. "Arcueid has already saved and aided humanity for over eight hundred years. It was already predetermined eight hundred years ago that she would reunite with Shirou and Ishtar. By the way if you are planning on stopping her then you better work fast. She will only be on this world for another forty-eight minutes and twenty-three seconds."

"What?" Lila said nearly spitting out her own tea, before swallowing it and causing the piping hot liquid to scald her throat. She uttered a few mystical words and felt a soothing release from the burnt flesh as she used this time to get her thoughts into action. "Are you sure?"

"Being sure of the time of events is my job," Aoko said still smiling. "Well one of my jobs. I do a lot of things."

Lila didn't even hear her as she immediately teleported from the room… or attempted to at least. A raw space-time barrier with very little of the cushioning effect some houses employed hit her and she collapsed to the ground bleeding from multiple orifices. Prana automatically began circling in her body and in a couple seconds she was healed.

"Let me go," she yelled at the red headed woman who was staring at her. "I need to go now."

Suddenly without any warning her former conversant threw a punch. In sheer surprise she barely managed to throw up a half formed shield which the much stronger woman crashed through like air before her fist buried itself in her solar plexus and she once more hit the ground.

"Geez calm down," Aoko Aozaki said looking at the downed woman beneath her. "I didn't even hit you that hard but if you keep trying to break my ST-lock I can give you a fiercer tap. Relax now, time is on our side. Now if I let you up, can you try and be sensible and calm and responsible and all the other things befitting of the chairman of the largest conglomeration of special interest groups on earth."

"I'm okay," Lila said hobbling to her feet unsteadily. While Aoko may have called it a mild tap it didn't erase the fact that she could taste blood in her mouth and bile in her throat. Prana surged throughout her body healing her and she could feel bruises on her skin and internal organs start to fade away. "I'm okay now, could you please let me out."

Aoko looked at her sceptically up and down before sighing and whistling. As soon as the high pitched sound hit her ears Lila felt a slight disturbance that she was only conscious of in its absence; that of the space-time lock dissipating. With barely a seconds warning she disappeared from the room before the red-haired woman's eyes.

"Young people these days," Aoko said smiling faintly as she sat down and accepted another cup of tea from the serving robot.

xxx

If you were to ask your average human off the street what the most holy, sacred city in the world was they would most likely answer with an immediate Winterwood. The city was the only place in the world in which all three gods alledgedly stayed at a single time as well as the place where Lady Ishtar defeated the Beast of Gaia and Lord Inke fought against the Mother of Dragons. This was the place in which Lady Brunestud also became known as she killed the scorpion monster and saved the rest of the humans. Even as civilisation almost collapsed under the weight of the casualties, the threat of the monsters spawned by Tiamat, the natural disasters caused by the gods presence in the world and the subsequent starvation as farming and fishing stocks dwindled to pitiful levels; Winterwood city stood strong. Protected by the goddess and blessed by her, rebuilding started immediately and the first things to be rebuilt were temples dedicated to Lady Brunestud, Lady Ishtar and Lorde Inke.

Appearing on the empty snow-covered streets of Winterwood Lila Inke appeared and then stumbled at the landing, swaying on her feet before she caught herself. Her face was noticeably flushed and she took deep breaths trying to stop the shaking in her body.

"Never again," she said to herself. "Don't teleport when disorientated. Augh, it feels like I've been hit by a train. "That woman has far too much arm strength."

"You should have rolled with the punch," a familiar voice hit Lila's ears and the Inke whirled around and saw the woman that had given her a thrashing leaning against a lamppost in a winter jacket, a scarf and a beanie and sipping from a mug of what looked to be hot cocoa. "You're quite fragile for an Inke, have you thought about hitting the gym?"

"How did you get here," Lila shouted in amazement at the other woman. She had teleported before her and yet the redhead had somehow left afterwards and arrived before. "And I'm not weak."

"Not for an ordinary person but for an Inke you might as well be an infant," Aoko said as she put down the mug of hot cocoa on the side of the road. "I've been here for five minutes already," she said with a wink causing Lila to splutter at the implications. "By the way I hardly believe I need to remind that Arcueid Brunestud is here."

Her nonchalant tone snapped Lila Inke out of her confusion. Without a single doubt Lady Brunestud was in this city. The last god of Earth had an aura that was so powerful that it acted as a physical force. The mere presence of Lady Brunestud made the entire world feel more stable as if the texture of the world was being held together by the will of the last goddess. That impossible sensation was an announcement that the target of her search was right there.

Lila focused on the feeling and hastily moved towards the source. Suddenly, as if from nowhere, Dorado Inke appeared in front of her with another woman; hopefully the head of The Agency of Choice. The woman had long black hair that flowed down past her shoulders and bright blue eyes that looked in an almost haughty manner at Lila before she turned towards the location of Lady Brunestud.

"Your teleportation is as impeccable as ever Rin," Dorado said smiling at the woman.

"Please call me Miss Tohsaka, Mr Inke," the lady named Rin said with a bit of frost in her voice. "You do realise that I can Aoko over there and the only reason she isn't punching you is due to the fact that I'm here." She leaned towards Lila's ancestor and she saw a bit of sweat appear on the usually cheerful man's forehead. "Don't push me," she warned.

"No, mam," Dorado said instantly. Rin turned and looked briefly at Lila giving a nod of acknowledgement before giving a friendly wave towards Aoko and heading off in the direction of Lady Brunestud causing both Lila and Dorado to follow.

"Who else have you invited over," Rin said as the two caught up to her.

"Valerie, Emiya, Sa…" Dorado began.

"Satsuki," Rin finished cutting him off as she pointed towards the skies. High above them they watched in stunned silence as a tiny dot grew and transformed into some eldritch horror many kilometres in length with a surplus of wings and eyes. A crack to the right and suddenly Bazett was there, the solid stone street cracked under the force of her abrupt descent.

"Wait," Rin said as she looked up into the sky at the collosal beast that was now shrinking. "No don't…"

Lila would never hear what she said next as the beast disappeared and a small dot dropped like a stone towards the Winterwood roads. The next seconds were a chaotic maelstrom of sound and colour and Lila was knocked off her feet by a shockwave. Climbing to her feet she was treated to the extremely rare sight of that girl Rin tearing strips out of the esteemed General Satsuki.

"Wow that's not something you see every day," Lady Brunestud said as she stepped into the street as if appearing from nothingness; Lila couldn't even begin to glean whether her presence was due to teleportation or simply fast movement. Her waist long blonde hair and her scarlet eyes easily identified her as the progenitor of the Brunestud family and she was dressed in a regal looking white gown. Her overwhelming presence almost brought Lila to her knees before she smiled and her presence abated. "There are a lot of people here to see me," Lady Brunestud said. "It's not even my birthday."

Suddenly Valerie Bruenestud appeared in the middle of the street shaking her head from the teleportation. She looked as if she had run a bit and she focused on Lila immediately.

"Bad news," she began. "The Emiya house is empty I couldn't find any of them. Even the Chaosborn are gone."

"They have already joined the Exodus," a voice of pure power sounded out in the crowded street and Lila looked to see a Chaosborn atop a nearby roof. "Those two came to visit Arcueid and say goodbye about a week back. They should be with Expedition Delta right now."

"You could always call them back if you want," Arcueid suggested. "Although from what I've heard that teleportation is a bit rough."

"That teleportation is fucking brutal," General Satsuki echoed. "While those two are both pretty tough I also wouldn't come back lightly."

"Come back," Arcueid mirrored. "Yes, you left the planet. Why are you back?"

"Grandma Arcueid you haven't left yet," Valerie said.

"Leave," Arcueid said with a genuinely baffled tone. "I hadn't had any particular thoughts of leaving."

That sentence contained a lot of power for something so small and Lila immediately felt the tension drain out of her. She didn't want to leave. She can relax now. She was going to kill Amora.

"Don't count your chickens," General Satsuki said putting a hand on her shoulder. She looked like she was going to speak further, but then she stopped and spun on her heel towards a point in space and Lady Brunestud joined in inspecting that spot. A wave of pure mana exploded from that location and General Satsuki stepped forward a step preventing her from being blown away by the unreal amount of energy emanating from what felt like a tear in space. Suddenly the prana died completely and Lila had millisecond to realise that there were two figures standing there before she was hit by the combined force of at the level of Lady Brunestud and she blacked out.

She felt sudden violent movement and Lila eyes snapped open to see the face of General Satsuki vigorously shaking her. Without a word General Satsuki turned her head and pointed towards the scene where the two figures stood and Lila's eyes widened as she felt their auras and instantly realised just what they were. The male had flaming red hair and piercing brown eyes with a hint of scales to his uncovered skin which somehow gave him a more exotic appearance. He was dressed in a white trench coat with a black shirt and pants beneath it, something slightly weird but still utterly mundane for somebody of his station. The woman on the other hand was just flat out the most beautiful person she had ever seen and that included her own high priestess. She was dressed in clothing barely less revealing than Amora, namely a loincloth and bikini top but she was adorned in gold decorations throughout her body.

Suddenly Arcueid moved although to Lila's eyes she may as well have teleported and there was a brief instant in which everything went black and quiet after which she saw the Lady Brunestud withdraw her fist from Lord Inke's face.

"That's eight hundred and fifty years of rage," Lady Brunestud said and Lila could detect a far different emotion beneath that layer of anger.

"I'll gladly receive it," the god said with a smile. In actuality it seemed very little damage, if any, had been done to him. "Just avoid releasing that anger against the planet or I might have to compose a requiem for Gaia. Hello everybody it's good to see you again."

What was the correct thing to say to a god who hadn't been seen on the planet for eight hundred and fifty years? Any thoughts about even speaking up faded as she once again realised how utterly unqualified that she was for the current situation. The head of the Inke and Brunestud clans were the only people who hadn't been present when Lord Inke and Lady Ishtar were still there. Suddenly it became less of an attempt to prevent the last goddess from leaving the world and more of a reunion between comrades that haven't seen each other for the longest of times. Lila was suddenly struck by a thought like a lightning bolt. This entire set of events that caused her to send all these people here was probably coordinated by one of the gods as a means of gathering all their old companions. A twist of his head and suddenly Lila was looking into the deep brown eyes of Lord Inke who smiled and gave her a wink.

While some might have felt angry to be manipulated in that way, Lila could not care less at that moment. Ishtar the goddess of the Heavens, Brunestud the goddess of the Earth and Inke the god of the Water were all standing in front of her. This monumental occasion was helped in some small way by her actions and she felt proud for doing her part.

"It's good to see you all again," Lady Ishtar spoke up her voice sultry and warm causing pleasant shivers to climb up the collective spines of everybody there. "While Volana is a nice place it is good to once again see our living friends."

"Volana actually exists," General Satsuki said, casually blaspheming.

"I personally had tea with the Tohno family a few iterations ago," Lord Inke said and there was something about his voice far different and truer than the seductive voice of Lady Ishtar or the powerful voice of Lady Brunestud. "Volana is a place that exists somewhere before the root where those who are yet unwilling to reincarnate are able to live out a few eternities. Nine is there also, as is Kiritsugu and so are many of the servants that died in the grail war and even some of the Dead Apostle Ancestors." He looked towards Satsuki as he said it and Lila was surprised to see the look of sheer shock on her face.

"It's a very lovely place," Lady Ishtar said to Lady Brunestud. "We'd love to show it to you."

To her credit Lady Brunestud looked extremely reluctant. She looked around at the various people before her eyes lingered on Valerie.

"I've missed you," she said. "I've missed both of you so much. You would think that over eight hundred years I would forget about you, but I never have, but I'm not sure I can leave the humans. You left because you had to and you charged me to protect the humans, but I started to love them and in turn they love me. What kind of goddess would I be if I abandoned them here?" Far from being upset or angry about her response both Lord Inke and Lady Ishtar smiled.

"Arcueid look at those around you," Lorde Inke said. "I've assembled a group of people who have more than enough power to protect humanity in your stead. That's not the only thing; Ishtar initiated a prophecy with her high priest that managed to bring them all here for this meeting. I myself often send out guardians from Volana to act in my stead whenever I deem it absolutely necessary. There will still be opportunities to guide humanity even in Volana."

"Besides you won't be able to stay on this world for much longer," Lord Inke said. "When humanity leaves the collective consciousness that held back the other textures of the world will collapse and this world will end up very different. While you could easily travel to another planet with some subsect of humanity your presence will immediately be contested by the other various communities. Many humans will be beyond your help limited by the confines of a single planet at a time. Arcueid as your friend I'm asking you to come with me."

The goddess of the Waters stretched out his hand to the goddess but she didn't take it, instead leaping into his embrace and giving him a hug. They stayed like that for a moment before they parted and Lady Ishtar watched the entire time with a radiant smile upon his face.

"Okay Shirou lets go," Lady Brunestud said her elegant looks contrasted by an eager smile upon her face.

"In a moment," Lorde Inke said giving a dazzling smile. "I've come all this way here I might as well spend a few words before I have to go. I'm not going to drag this on. My presence here hastens the eventual collapse. It was a pleasure to know all of you and the time that I had with each one of you has been too short. I will await you again in Volana although I don't see myself meeting any of you again soon. If you keep as you are you will bring prosperity to humans. All of you," he said and for a moment he was staring directly at Lila, his brown eyes boring deep into his soul. "It will not be easy but then if it was easy then anybody could do it."

"I'll miss all of you," Lord Brunestud said bending slightly and giving Valerie, her daughter, a hug. "It's people like you that make the other humans worthwhile. That inspires them to do their best. I'm truly better for knowing all of you."

"Don't forget to have fun while doing it," Lady Ishtar threw in. "A life without pleasure is just meaningless and sad. Love is also pretty great if you find time for it."

"You're going to have to alter some of the quotes a bit," Lord Inke said with a grin that brightened the area. "But you have a lot of time in which to do so; something we do not have," he said as he reached towards the air in his side and with his bare hands he tore space open revealing paradise. With an almost anti-climactic exit the last gods exited the world and humanity was left alone but not unprepared.

 **Author Note: Welcome to the last chapter of White Ink. This was a chapter that had been planned since way before the start of the Grail War. I have literally nothing more to say. It's pretty weird to know that I won't be touching this story again.**

 **Thank you for everybody who supported me in this story.**

 **Kind Regards**

 **Acausal Trilby**


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